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RE: How can you tell someone is smart?

in #politics7 years ago

Smart people are just people capable of besting their own cognitive biases.

If intelligence were simply a matter of knowing things you could talk about at a cocktail party, well then intelligence would largely be reserved for the upper classes who have greater access to information... which is simply not true.


Case and point ^

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"Smart people are just people capable of besting their own cognitive biases."

That's only one specific kind of intelligence. A computer has no self awareness, but mathematically it's capable of far greater feats of calculation than anyman.

You can't properly apply the knowledge you collect if you are subject to cognitive biases. The application of knowledge is the more important part of the equation. You can know a limited number of things but apply that knowledge very effectively and be much more valued for intelligence (example being some artists etc.) or you can have this vast library of information on tax policy and information as to it's ramifications and still believe in trickle down.

Also, a computer being smarter than us because it has no self-awareness actually further proves my point... it has no cognitive biases to overcome.