Many people believe that intelligence is an inherited trait. IQ tests aren't a black and white indication of ones intelligence because intelligence has a wider spectrum of applications than algebra, language and geometry, but it's our best objective guide to date. After I took my first professional IQ test and scored 125, without any collage education, my parents instantly became proud of me. To them it was obvious that they had a huge part in fostering my above average score. I think my father believes he simply scared the brains into me and that some form of intelligence osmosis occurred from being around his Green Beret circuit friendly endeavors. My mother, on the other hand, mentioned that she believes my grandfather could do large mathematical equations in his head, though the calculations always ended in the hundredth of cent.
I love my parents and they provided many wonderful gatherings and celebrations but I can't remember them stimulating me intellectually. At best, my dad would play chess with me during the commercials of M.A.S.H. We played a few hundred games and I lost every time. I don't know how I didn't get discouraged or why my dad didn't help me out. Twenty years later my opening game is extremely strong against people who don't have the openings memorized but my end game is still a child's play. My mom is a nurse and was pleased to label me a doctor and give me the visible man; what's cooler than a plastic miniature nude man with removable parts? My guess is that the most beneficial thing they did was to have an extremely dysfunctional relationship which caused me to become "more objective" in my judgments of them and therefore myself. Their relationship also sent me through constant changes, moving back and forth, from school to school, which forced me to adjust to a wide variety of situations, become proficient in making new friends and adapt to new social norms (probably one of the most complicated things in the universe). I laugh to myself when I hear my parents blame me for me switching from parent to parent because "I liked the rules of the other parent better." The truth is that I felt the need to spend time with both of my parents and my moving conveniently coincided during the times they were going to ship me to military school or rewrite their TOUGHLOVE® contract. The downside of my parents beneficial dysfunctional relationship is that I don't even have one memory of my mother and father having a conversation. I recently asked them why they don't talk and they both said, "what do we have in common?"
The reason I don't think intelligence is inherited has little to do with my parents. I think it's quite possible that I wouldn't score so well on IQ tests if I had parents that guided me into intellectualism. What I learned from both of my parents was the value of dedication and blind persistence. The one thing they did teach me they've been disappointed with in me because our values are so foreign to each other. I value new experience, adventure and art; they value repetition, stability and god. I wonder if my mother ever curses herself when she remembers saying, "I don't care what you do, as long as you do your best at it." That was fine when I was 12 and I spoke of being an astronaut or a doctor. It was even fine when I was in chef school, but when she found out my goal was to be a cook, she felt disappointed.
Intelligence, in and of itself, is a strange term. It's not aptitude, which my have a genetic element, even if it's on the roulette table of sperm and egg combos. It's not knowledge in the strict sense of the word, although knowledge aids intelligence and is also a byproduct of it. Paradoxally, I almost believe that emotion has the largest role in excelling in intelligence.
The brain, and therefore the mind, work in tandem throughout life. When the mind hits on things it decides are good, fun and valuable, the brain releases some pleasure chemicals. This can wreak havoc when the mind fails to perceive the big picture with drugs, smoking and extreme sports but typically the function works for the benefit of the self: Fix something beautiful, dopamine release; Save the day, adrenaline release; Produce a nipple suck, Oxycotton blast. The intelligence junky is a strange one. Although there is a fair amount of reward in the brain for simply storming, absolute new discoveries are fairly rare. No, the lover of intelligence is the person who gets their kicks off of realizing their false assumptions. When most people discover they were wrong they become upset and suffer from CJS (Cortisol juicing syndrome). Therefore most people ovoid putting themselves in the situation of being wrong, exactly the place where intelligence is fostered. Dumb-Dumb will sometimes even lie to themselves and ignore new information, when it is counter to something they've assumed as infallible. The brainiac gets their rocks off, "I was wrong, Hallelujah!"
Many people believe that intelligence is an inherited trait. IQ tests aren't a black and white indication of ones intelligence because intelligence has a wider spectrum of applications than algebra, language and geometry, but it's our best objective guide to date. After I took my first professional IQ test and scored 125, without any collage education, my parents instantly became proud of me. To them it was obvious that they had a huge part in fostering my above average score. I think my father believes he simply scared the brains into me and that some form of intelligence osmosis occurred from being around his Green Beret circuit friendly endeavors. My mother, on the other hand, mentioned that she believes my grandfather could do large mathematical equations in his head, though the calculations always ended in the hundredth of cent.