High-Aptitude Minds: The Neurological Roots of Genius: Scientific American
# Smarter brains tend to be bigger—at least in certain locations. Researchers have fingered parts of the parietal and frontal lobes as well as a structure called the anterior cingulate as important for superior cognition.
# Some studies suggest that the brains of brighter people use less energy to solve certain problems than those of people with lower aptitudes do. But under certain circumstances, scientists have also observed higher neuronal power consumption in individuals with superior mental capacities.
# People often overestimate the importance of intellectual ability. Practice and perseverance contribute more to accomplishment than being smart does.
They always throw in that third statement. Tell me how much “practice and perseverance” contributed to Einstein’s monumental insights. Or the sublime intelligence that produced a Bach cantata. I know lots of terrible writers who write constantly, and have done so for decades, with no improvement at all.
The spark has to be there first. Practice and perseverance can’t work with nothing to work with. Although most Americans think there is something vaguely un-American (perhaps a threat to our inbred egalitarianism) to admitting it, and the equal outcome leftists certainly hate the notion that intelligence matters - see how the average labor union is organized. (via Glenn Reynolds).
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Researchers have fingered parts of the parietal and frontal lobes as well as a structure called the anterior cingulate as important for superior cognition.
Kinky.
Being smart is a side effect of practice and perseverance. There are fewer Mycrofts out there than there are Watsons.
No, not really.
And the Watsons are pretty much nothing without the Mycrofts.
Sorry, DocOb, but a wee bit of study in the area of learning modes, coupled with a little basic psychology should demonstrate to you that “being smart” is a primary effect of having - and usefully utilizing - intelligence. Practice and perseverance are useful, yes, even essential in obtaining repeatedly good results…however, without the exercise of intelligent understanding, “practice” just means repeating the same set of mistakes, and “perseverance” devolves into stubbornly trying to obtain a different or more desired end while repeating the mistakes…
Being able to perform 2,000 pushups at a stretch, for instance, doesn’t mean there’s any intelligent reason for doing so - it just means one has the proper technique (practice), the persistence (perseverance) and the physical stamina to do so…
I was being particularly unclear. I didn’t mean to make it look like I was rebutting the quoted text, I just thought it was kind of funny in a very sophomoric way.
It mean to imply that a person with natural intelligence who doesn’t bother to use it on a fairly regular basis doesn’t function as well as someone who doesn’t quite have quite as much natural intelligence but who exercises it on a regular basis. Watson was a pretty smart guy to begin with. My analogy breaks down because Mycroft did exercise his brain regularly, which was something I forgot when I posted. Perhaps I should go exercise my brain a bit.