Or why people with academic credentials are not always the smartest!
My favourite quote by Jane Chin, PH.D.
Because to get my Ph.D. I had to spend 7 years of my life focusing on one specific process in one specific type of cell and hope that I made the right call (“gamble”) in my thesis project to get out with the degree before I’m too old to learn employable skills ex-academia.That was after 4 years in high school and 4 years of college = 15 years in an artificial learning bubble.
Intelligence is hard to pigeon hole correctly even when your evaluating yourself.. But the sooner you work out what works for you, the sooner you stop wasting your time struggling to fit into a an un-natural learning style/ requirements.
Which is you??
As a kid our intelligence gets labelled, and that effects us the rest of our lives. Its hard as an adult to accept your own genius ability if you’ve been told your stupid all your life. I’ve seen it first hand in someone very close to me in the past, and been frustrated in not being able to help. If you’ve been told your stupid it takes allot of gumption to strive for greatness or do something you’ve never done before!!
Identifying the area of your own genius makes it so much easier to work your way towards doing something that excites that intelligence. I’m a hands on person, so therefore Kinaesthetic. If you show me how to do something with my hands I pick it up super quick and my hands won’t forget that movement. Straight out of school I studied sports Massage and loved it but it wasn’t mentally stimulating enough long term.
I dance and love moment. Listening to music and interpreting it, throwing myself about a room, wiggling around like an idiot like no one is watching… I wouldn’t say I’m amazing at dance its self but I’ve wiggled out a niche that fits me and that I’m striving to perfect. Satisfaction = A+++
I was home-schooled and appreciate the freedom of thought that gave me. The world was my oyster. Having not been to conventional school, entering the career market (I hate calling things jobs) with out a qualification is not scary at all. This blog highlights this hilariously!
This blog is an attempt to offer those considering graduate school some good reasons to do something else. Its focus is on the humanities and social sciences.
To me someone who has a degree is more likely (note: not exclusively) to be “Intelligent”. Someone who has experience and fumbled their way into a career is probably happier but is also what I’d term “Smart”
Here is how I define each word:
However conciser your self a Genius and your on the right track!! This is my motto. Hard work an determination and BIG BIG dreams… There’s no one but yourself stopping you!!
Genius is largely the result of hard work, rather than an inspired flash of insight. (inventor Thomas Edison.)
Phloss there is a lot of truth in this. I believe that most 'overnight successes' take about 10 years and result from hard work and just doing it, rather than learned academic skills. If you haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers' you would find it interesting; he digs in to the reasons people succeed and it's usually not that obvious 🙂
I spent a number of years in university and was a ridiculously bookish kid (to some extent because other kids found me strange, heh).
I'd agree in saying that a degree of any sort is not only not terribly useful in some cases (as well as being a brilliant way to incur massive debt at a young age), but can fetter some minds and thinking processes. It can also devalue having a degree, as more and more are churned out.
And some of the cleverest/most intelligent people I know didn't even finish school, and are doing just beautifully because they applied themselves (although the lack of degree can close some doors into some jobs/positions in their industry).
On the other hand, having a degree is incredibly _useful_ in some fields of study, not only because of what one is actively taught, but because of the people to whom one has access.
I _do_, however, think that knowledge itself is immensely important. People should be taught (and continuously encouraged and expected) to continue to educate themselves throughout their lives. Without that, they can become not only narrow-minded, but also dead wrong, the consequences of which in terms of crumbling societies and extremely poor policy decisions from governments are very much in evidence at the moment.
YAY thanks for the comments.. I'm glad you get where I'm coming from with this! And yes if I could have access to, and learn from those people with out incurring years in a classroom or the debt, I probably would!!