Twenty-some years ago my dad gave me a copy of some Mike Vance tapes. Mike talked about creative thinking, what it is and how to make it happen. Mike also spent a lot of time talking about Edward De Bono. De Bono is the author of "Lateral Thinking", "Six Thinking Hats", "Serious Creativity" and many other books. He is the best source for thoughts about thinking.

It was De Bono that introduced me to ideas about the differences between intelligence and thinking. He noticed that these two concepts are often used interchangeably. And erroneously. Just because an individual has high intellect does not mean that individual is a skilled thinker.

Put another way, intelligence is the raw material. Consider it to be like iron ore. The potential certainly exists to capitalize on the intellect that is available. The higher the intellect the more potential that exists. But in the raw form intellect is only potential.

So, if intellect was the whole story then all of the good ideas and most of the accomplishments would come from the certified geniuses. That would take a bunch of pressure off of the rest of us. But in reality there is not direct correlation between intellect and accomplishment. There are several reasons that this is so.

First, there is so much to do that even if there was some hierarchal order tying accomplishments to genius there would still be a lot left for us to do. There just aren't that many certifiable geniuses. Another factor is that most high intellect types don't relate to the common person. So common inventions may not happen due to a lack of interest or understanding.

Peter Wachtel, a high intellect, high achieving individual, and a personal friend, has shared some interesting insights with me. He once told me that he was destined to be a CEO of a major corporation or a criminal. This was rooted in his intellect. Either he would use it for good or not. He is pretty sure that because of his intellect he is better than most people. With little prompting he could be convinced that the rules just don't apply to him. That is a fairly common attitude held by the highly intelligent.

But the most important factor is that of applying intellect. In other words, thinking makes the difference. It is the ability and tenacity of someone with average intelligence that often puts him ahead of his higher IQ colleagues. He or she may not have an equal intelligence, but thinking and work ethic can be a powerful equalizer.

The major point of all this is that intelligence and thinking are not the same thing. Intelligence is the raw material. Accomplishment or performance or output is the final good. And thinking, coupled with hard work, is the means of production that makes it all happen.

I grew up hearing the old cliche, "whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." Perhaps there is a lot more to that than we might want to admit.

That's all for now............
9:07:59 PM    comment []