Humanity, it's time to take a bow!

Albert Einstein, the German-born theoretical physicist, best known for developing the Theory of Relativity was a blessing for Science when he lived. And when he died, his brain was like a pot of gold for scientists. American pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein’s brain seven and half hours after his death (remains his major claim to fame), and several studies were conducted to ascertain, essentially, what was so special about this extraordinary mind. Parts of his brain are on exhibit in the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, US.

Through the ages, science has tried to discern the brain, or grey matter as we call it, to understand what drives our intelligence. And Einstein’s brain was indeed too special to miss out, as his brilliant theories still drive scientific advancement decades after he passed. But his childhood stories are full of interesting anecdotes about how he showed little of the potential that was realized later in life.

According to various sources, Einstein was slow in learning how to speak. One headmaster famously predicted that he wouldn’t amount to much. Conversely, his slow verbal development also made him very curious about topics like space and time. More importantly, think in pictures rather than words. Einstein’s abilities to visualize enabled him to develop the special and general theories of relativity. He was strongly of the view that maths was the language used by nature to express her wonders. More about how he did so can be found in this wonderful Time slideshow.

Einstein’s theories were extraordinary, and so were his quotes. A particular favourite of mine is this one, where he admitted his own weaknesses as a child, and why they proved to be a blessing in disguise:

"I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time. These are things which he has thought about as a child. But my intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up."

Frankly, there are a lot of aspects of Einstein’s childhood up for debate, but this one learning is not: Performance in school and college is neither the sole determinant of career success, nor the perfect barometer on which to measure an individual’s ‘intelligence’.

In this article, I will provide some context on how human intelligence is commonly understood and even more commonly misunderstood.

What's in a name? Please check your IQ, dear Shakespeare!

In my own experience growing up, we primarily understood and perceived intelligence in one way, just as the 'environment' (teachers, peers, parents) expressed it. It was largely about studies and marks and more specifically Maths, Science and English. We came across the term IQ or Intelligence Quotient at that time, and it became a collective aspiration. We were convinced that this was the only determinant of our life in the education system and beyond.

Intelligence quotient (IQ) refers to mental age (MA) expressed as a ratio of chronological age (CA) multiplied by 100. It is also defined as the measure of an individual’s ability to reason and solve problems.

Mensa International, founded in England in 1946 by a barrister named Roland Berrill, and Dr. Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer, aimed to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions. The only criteria to be a member is to score within the upper 2% of the general population on an approved intelligence test. It is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world, based on its selection process.

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

Can one test indeed measure the entire gamut of human intelligence? Absolutely not! This is confirmed by a huge online study on IQ in 2012, which encompassed a lakh participants. They were tested on memory, reasoning, attention and planning abilities and also asked about their background and lifestyle. They could find some correlations, but overall, concluded that no single test or component could determine how well a person could perform mental or cognitive tasks. It also does not determine how well you will perform in your career. Adam Hampshire, PhD. and psychologist at the Brain and Mind Institute Natural Sciences Centre in London, Ontario, Canada, commented:

“It is time to move on to using a more comprehensive set of tests that can measure separate scores for each type of intelligence… IQ is a massive oversimplification of the spectrum of human cognitive ability.”

John Gabrieli, PhD, professor of brain and cognitive science at MIT in Boston, added, “We imagine that there is THE test of intelligence, but you can measure it in many ways. One measure may make a person seem super-intelligent, but if they picked another, they may seem average. There are multiple kinds of intelligence that can link to various tasks and different parts of the brain.”

Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology, University of Toronto, Canada, asserts that IQ tests are good at measuring certain mental faculties, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity - how much information you can hold in mind. But they fail in measuring abilities critical to making good judgments in real-life situations. Other areas like ability to assess information or overcome intuitive cognitive biases can play a major role too. He concludes:

"IQ tests measure an important domain of cognitive functioning and they are moderately good at predicting academic and work success. But they are incomplete. They fall short of the full panoply of skills that would come under the rubric of 'good thinking'."

This could be no less than a travesty, since similar intelligence tests are widely used for selection in schools and universities around the world and in India, particularly in B-schools. Top organisations continue to consider educational background as a pre-requisite for a job candidate years later, even if he/she may have excellent professional credentials subsequently. Interestingly, high IQ may even be a tool for rejection in some professions. For instance, some districts in the US began to use a maximum IQ score for admission to the police force, concerned that high IQ will correlate to high chance of boredom and exits!

But the damage such evaluations lead to is even worse, if you think about it. The education system is, in that case, guilty of bias to a very specific selection of students. A more holistic approach would be to understand where each student’s unique abilities lie, and giving all young and impressionable minds the direction they need and deserve. This is well summarised in another quotation attributed to Einstein (though it is debated whether he actually said it; doesn't take away from the message by the way):

"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

On the other end, even if people are able to excel in this education system, they may lack in other critical areas that will affect their career at a later stage.

IQ tests are not inherently wrong, as long as they are being utilized for the right reasons, and in cognizance of the scope and limitations of the particular test. For a course in nuclear physics, being high on IQ matters, but does it matter equally for marketing, HR or entrepreneurship? In education programmes, they are useful to determine weak or strong areas of students and then adopting appropriate interventions. But it is when people read too much into IQ tests and their association with success, that we have a problem.

Going beyond IQ

Thanks to this general understanding that IQ is an inadequate measure of an individual’s capability, research is now going beyond this measure. These new areas being explored definitely show promise.

Have you ever wondered why someone who seems visibly less smart manages to do better? While there is truly a maze of quotients out there today, let me put up some for exercising our collective mental faculties:

Emotional Quotient: Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

Essentially, it is a measure of whether you make your emotions work for you or allow them to work against you.

Photo by fauxels

Social Quotient: Considered a superset of EQ, social intelligence is ability of a person to tune into other people’s emotions and read the subtle behavioral cues to choose the most effective response in a given situation.

This is being considered even more important in the coming years, as technology brings unprecedented disruptions in life and interpersonal relationships. Managers with strong IQ but weak SQ, for instance, will find it tough to understand their subordinates' emotional drivers and motivations and build the strong human connections necessary for superlative teams. Being passionate for your own goals is one thing, driving the same passion in others is a different level of intelligence indeed!

A researcher named Lyle Spencer completed a study of managers of a $2 billion global division of Siemens with 400 branches in 56 countries. On evaluating the competencies of star performers and average performers, he concluded that the four competencies of ESI (Emotional and Social Intelligence) were the key differentiators. Subsequent interventions to improve ESI also proved a positive correlation with performance.

Creativity Quotient: Creativity is defined by Prof William D Romey of Syracuse University as “the ability to combine ideas, things, techniques, or approaches in a new way.” It is about a new combination of existing concepts, pulling existing knowledge into a new situation, evaluating potential approaches and outcomes, coming up with new and potent ideas and also taking those ideas to fruition. As pointed out earlier, Einstein appeared to have quite a distinctively strong CQ.  

While creativity is considered the domain of professions like music, writing, film making, design, etc, creative thinking is very important for organisations to stand out in a hugely competitive market. An IBM research in 2010 interviewed over 1,500 CEO’s from 60 countries, with one question being, “What’s the most important quality for leadership?” The answer was: creativity, which is the breeding ground for disruptive innovation, new business models, taking calculated risks and changing the status quo. Another PwC survey in 2019 found 77% of CEOs admitting that they find it difficult to get the creativity and innovation skills they need.

Adversity Quotient: Adversity quotient or AQ is defined as the ability of an individual to think, manage, direct, and endure challenges and difficulties in life (Utami, Hardjono, and Karyanta, 2014). This one truly catches attention considering the common adage that “Life is a marathon, not a race.”

This was originally proposed by Dr Paul Stoltz, who categorized people into three types based on AQ: Quitters, Campers, and Climbers. Clearly, climbers are better placed to succeed given their extremely strong persistence and never-say die attitude.

And then you could go on and on. Spiritual Quotient anyone? Just thought about it while writing, and yes, it is a thought process in focus!

Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall write in their exceptional book SQ: Connecting with Our Spiritual Intelligence:

“Spiritual Quotient (SQ) is ‘our most fundamental intelligence. It is what we use to develop our capacity for meaning, vision and value. It allows us to dream and to strive. It underlies the things we believe in and the role our beliefs and values play in the actions that we take.”

This has three very critical aspects – responsibility for your purpose in life (which first entails understanding your purpose); humility on your being just a small entity in the grand design and happiness, which is obviously the ultimate objective of all our endeavours in life. Realizing that our time on the planet is limited and unpredictable is in itself an extraordinary form of intelligence. It keeps us more focused and on course.

So what else can I say in conclusion but this: “Humanity, you need to take a bow!” I am sure all of you have displayed all these diverse forms of intelligence, albeit in various degrees. Some of these are your strengths, while the others are work in progress. If the school life ecosystem works on encouraging children to recognise and build on their unique strengths and character, rather than thrusting preset notions, I argue that outcomes will be way better. Education has to build bridges, not walls. In the words of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore:

"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence".

The objective of self-realization and self-reflection is quite straightforward. Knowing yourself and where you truly excel, is the first step towards knowing the kind of life you want; and that is the path you are best suited to travel. The mistake we often make is to shape our journey on the societal constructs that we are exposed to, which deafen us to our own inner voice. To find your voice and your path is the first step to move from a 'good' life to a 'great' one. Needless to add, the earlier the better. But never too late either! As we saw in Einstein's case, being late actually became a boon in disguise!