On a rational level, intelligent people can quickly grasp the key points and make decisions in various unknown fields, and understand trends through different channels. They can also lead their teams to achieve success on the right path.
On an emotional level, intelligent people are often strong-willed, possess a good mindset, and can quickly adjust themselves to different environments.
Furthermore, intelligent people, or those with great wisdom, value self-evaluation more than external praise or criticism. This allows them to honestly face problems and rise to challenges.
Before explaining the criteria for identifying intelligent people, let's correct three misconceptions:
1. Having expertise in a specific field does not equate to intelligence
. For example, a sewer worker and an excavator operator are both veterans in their respective fields; who is smarter? It's hard to say. Therefore, the criteria for identifying intelligent people should not be specific to a particular field, but should have broader applicability.
2. A high level of education does not equal intelligence.
Who is smarter, an undergraduate or a PhD? It's hard to say. An undergraduate might have made excellent research achievements during their undergraduate studies but went directly to work after graduation. Does that mean they are necessarily less intelligent or smarter than a PhD? It's uncertain.
3. A good background doesn't equal intelligence.
I have friends from prestigious universities like Tsinghua and Peking University, and renowned international universities, but I also have friends from ordinary universities. The school environment has a significant impact on a student's development, but it's not the only factor. Similarly, graduates from top universities aren't necessarily intelligent.
So, how do you identify intelligent people? The following six criteria will be helpful, and hopefully, you can quickly find intelligent people.
1. Learning ability in self-awareness
. Here's a concept—metacognitive ability. Essentially, it's the self-awareness, self-reflection, self-evaluation, and self-regulation of an individual's self-awareness process.
People with strong metacognitive abilities usually exhibit strong learning abilities because they understand their own cognition and learning process well, and can quickly find suitable learning strategies after self-reflection.
At the same time, they have strong control over their cognitive abilities, know how to utilize existing knowledge frameworks, and rationally adjust the intake of new knowledge, quickly integrating new knowledge into their existing knowledge system.
In Steve Jobs' words, it's about connecting the dots; people with strong metacognitive abilities connect them particularly quickly.
2. Logical Thinking Leap Ability:
Our typical communication process usually involves discussing A, then B, then C, then D.
However, I've noticed that some intelligent people, when chatting, don't proceed step-by-step, but rather leapfrog, discussing A, then D, then F, then J...
This ADFJ (Advanced Concepts, Advanced Concepts, Advanced Skills, and Advanced Skills) conversation style, while logically similar to the ABCD approach, isn't random leaps in thought. Instead, it involves intermediate steps that both parties have already anticipated, understanding each other with a glance or gesture. Therefore, they don't need to mention every step; they can simply jump to the next.
3. Curiosity
: Actually, the metacognitive ability and thinking leap ability mentioned earlier are both foundational to "intelligence." The most direct indicator of intelligence is curiosity.
An intelligent person typically possesses a broad curiosity about various aspects of life, and it is this curiosity that gives them more opportunities to acquire new knowledge.
"Curiosity" and "intelligence" are somewhat like a chicken-and-egg problem.
No matter how strong a person's learning ability is, if they lack curiosity, they won't explore new things; conversely, if a person lacks a broad understanding of things, they will find it difficult to see what they don't understand, and thus, it's not easy to develop a strong sense of curiosity.
In Socrates' words, "The only thing I know is that I know nothing."
4. The ability to explain complex problems in simple language.
We often see professionals explaining technical issues on online communities like Zhihu. They enthusiastically spend a lot of time explaining the underlying principles, listing various formulas, derivations, and technical terms, working very hard themselves, but most readers don't understand, resulting in unhappiness for both sides.
On one side, it's: "I've put in so much effort, how come you still don't understand?" On the other side, it's: "You've explained so much, it sounds impressive, but I still don't understand."
Many of the very intelligent people I've encountered have in-depth research in their professional fields. A common characteristic of these intelligent people is that when explaining professional issues, they deliberately avoid using big words, jargon, and technical terms that others might not understand.
When someone deliberately chooses simple language to explain a problem, it firstly demonstrates their ability to empathize and analyze their expression from the other person's perspective.
Secondly, many professional terms are tools used by experts for direct communication, and using these tools to "cheat" your audience when they are not experts may not be appropriate.
Some well-known users on Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A website) in fields such as psychology, statistics, and fitness often demonstrate this ability when answering questions.
5. Willingness to Accept Different Viewpoints
This standard is specifically reflected in several aspects. For example, expressing fewer opinions on areas you are unfamiliar with; being able to accept different viewpoints, even completely opposite ones, is also a form of empathy.
Most importantly, not being blindly swayed or stubbornly clinging to outdated ideas; being able to quickly absorb correct viewpoints when new information and evidence prove your original viewpoint wrong.
These points sound simple, but are actually quite difficult to put into practice because they involve emotional intelligence, face-saving, and other social attributes.
6. Kindness and Willingness to Help Others
A person's kindness towards others is also an important standard. Of course, to be precise, kindness does not equate to intelligence; there are plenty of intelligent but bad people.
However, the distinction between "good" and "bad" is highly subjective. Generally, everyone is a good person in their own eyes; even terrorists don't see themselves as bad.
Therefore, the kindness I'm referring to is actually our attitude towards others—whether we can help them improve and achieve a win-win situation through sharing, mentoring, and leading by example. Helping others and knowing how to share is extremely difficult.
The final conclusion is:
a smart person possesses strong learning abilities, the capacity for flexible thinking, maintains constant curiosity, can explain complex issues in simple language, rationally considers external viewpoints, understands how to share, and is willing to help others succeed.
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