If you’ve been to my website, you probably know what I think of career aptitude tests. Well, I’m also skeptical of intelligence tests.
Now an author named Peter Stanovich confirms what I have always suspected. His book is aptly called What Intelligence Tests Miss.
When we think of intelligence, we think of just the criteria measured by IQ tests or by other tests that aresurrogates for IQ, such as GREs and LSATs. This view of mental skill is limited, he argues, with an amusing but apt illustration of former President George Bush. (Even if you like Bush, you won’t be offended. Stanovich doesn’t rant or attack. He notes that even Bush supporters have trouble defending their candidate sometimes.
Intelligence will only take you so far. When it comes to thinking, rationality trumps intelligence every time.
I’d also vote for qualities like persistence and as well as spatial and kinesthetic intelligence. I’m going nuts trying to remember the exercises my trainer and physical therapist taught me. If I’d taken more dance classes and played some basketball as a child, I’d be racing through them and wouldn’t even need notes.
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To rationality trumping intelligence, I’d like to add a sprinkle of good logic, a pinch of common sense, and a dash of gut level instinct!