Good story Neo, something that occurred to me regarding intellectualism. What I have discovered is that nearly every person you meet, no matter what their intellectual I.Q. knows something about a topic or issue more than you do. One may be chess as you highlighted, another may be fishing, or skating, or playing the drums, or shakespeare or on and on. Nearly every person has their little niche of knowledge which exceeds yours and the vast majority of people's.
Seeing only the surface of people based on what books they have read, or what education they have attained, severely limits ones ability to learn from everyone. Shoot, who here would ask an intellectual what is wrong with their car? Water heater, or Gas stove? Yet these things can be very important to know if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere on a highway or when the gas is billowing out of your kitchen.
I personally want to know as much as I possibly can. And not just the things written in books. Yesterday, I wanted to know how to fix my sons little battery powered car. So I took it apart top-to-bottom and learned something in the process. To me that was as fun and exciting as reading one of my management books which I love so much. Some intellectuals tend to read a lot and feel smug about what they have read, yet they can't repair a washer, dryer or build an addition onto a house. Of course some can, because that's the nature of intellectualism, it's undefinable.
One of the smartest people I know, and my best friend, is a house builder. To me, he's simply brilliant the way he can visualize every detail of how a house is going to look before it's built. And how he can run seven different projects and keep every detail tucked away in his head.
There are many levels of intelligence. Valuing all types is a sign of being truly educated in my eyes.
Michael |
