Stephen,

I loved this piece. In particular, it was your last sentence that summed it up for me. Well done.

Eric
CEO/Founder
Stage of Life.com

Thanks so much for your kind words.

Looking at your site, I can see where we subscribe to much the same philosophy - It's never too late. So many readers seem to see themselves as victims in an overly complicated world that's beyond their control...which is especially sad because this used to be a "Can-Do" nation. Perhaps, between the two of us, we can at least turn a few people around.

Steve

In my opinion, the I.Q. battery measures the abilities of bottom up stringers. As a nonconforming top down grouper, the test doesn't evaluate my cognitive abilities at all. If I can tread where angels dare not and stringers can only dream (with only an "average" I.Q.) then something is seriously wrong with the test.

It sucks being an "anthropologist from Mars." I think Earthlings attempt to control Chaos with useless tools like I.Q. tests; it is easier for them than trying to understand Chaos. I'm the Martian that got away...

In the beginning there was a negative feedback entity named Chaos who was a black hole of nothing but infinite possibilities. Chaos dreamed of becoming something. He wanted to evolve through matter. The day that Chaos created Order, a positive feedback entity, there was an explosion. “Bang!” There was light and sound and the diverse was created. The diverse exists because there is just enough Order in Chaos and Chaos in Order to create the building blocks of self-organizing matter.

We evolve by the same Fire method: Heat, break apart, and recombine with new self-organizing emergent properties. Chaos is a mad genius with an odd sense of humor who loves to play with fire. It is fire that causes matter to change form. Thanks to Chaos we have emerged from the fires of evolution with a reptilian, mammalian, and human brain. This combination makes us think we have enough intelligence to control Chaos by imposing Order. That’s our illusion. Chaos controls us and has been since the beginning.

The good news: When Chaos gets to be unbearable we get to plead for Order (our higher power) and he answers. The other route is to go psychotic and find Order in Madness (that’s called “The Hero’s Journey.”) In the meantime, the best we can do is appreciate the diversity that exists in ourselves and in our diverse. It is neither good or bad. It just is. We are all endosymbiotic organisms: Chaos and Order - living together within.

What happens in the end? The diverse becomes a universe. In the end there is a positive feedback entity named Order who was the sum of everything and dreamed of becoming nothing. The day that Order created Chaos, a negative feedback entity, there was an explosion…

Great post, never thought of IQ that way before. It's important to note that studies show that high IQ scores are not good predictors of success, rather self-discipline is the most important factor... so don't eat that marshmallow just yet! :) Furthermore, for all a person's book smarts in words and numbers, without social smarts a person won't go very far in life.

I think play is key to the development of the successful human being, as it functions to help the human organism to learn word, number and social smarts. See: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn

Something funny about your post, you used two fictional farmers named Gray and Brown. Two of the leading play scholars right now are Drs Peter Gray and Stuart Brown :)

Thank you for your comment.

You're right...IQ is not the best predictor of success. Being self-disciplined enough to not grab the marshmallow (or in my case, the beer) seems to be a better test. As for Gray and Brown, the names were just a coincidence but I have always believed that we should take play more seriously. Indeed, I think a well-developed sense of humor says a great deal about one's level of intelligence. Did you ever meet a truly witty person who was stupid? I didn't think so.

Steve

Isaac Asimov happened to be a feeble minded creative genius. He turned this madness into many works of literature. I like his short story called "Profession." The plot is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession_(short_story) The full text of the short story "Profession" can be found online at this link http://www.abelard.org/asimov.php

In my opinion, "Profession" represents Mr. Asimov's experience on what it is like being Aspergian and having to suffer through the education system that exists on planet earth. (He was a Martian that got away too!) Mr. Asimov wrote, "Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.”

"Somewhere there must be men and women with capacity for original thought." I think everyone is searching in all the wrong places like I.Q. tests.

A thought experiment: I just transmitted a viral cognitive dissonance. Will you resolve it in the good natured spirit of odd fun?

In my opinion, the article contains the "elitism virus". That virus causes all the wars. In my reality: a witty person can be stupid. There I was being stupid - here I am being witty. Here you are being stupid - there you are being witty. See how easy it is?

I like the pattern you set up here and agree with the general idea.

"The second, Numbers, are important because they represent relationships. People who are good with numbers are usually good at relating things one to another. They can predict in advance how some new idea will impact on some old idea. This really is the essence of mathematics. Algebra and calculus and differential equations and all those other high-powered techniques are really nothing more than formalized ways of dealing with relationships."

I would add: People who are good with patterns are usually good at relating things one to another. They can predict in advance how some new idea will impact on some old idea. Pattern recognition is a high-powered technique for dealing with relationships.

Here's the "self-organizing pattern" that leads me to predict that intelligence is made up of these two simplest components: Chaos and Order. The article "Self-Organization FAQ" is quick and easy and can be found here: http://psoup.math.wisc.edu/archive/sosfaq.html

P.S. The process of "Individuation" that can be found in Psychology is really just a borrowed "Self-Organizing" pattern.