Intelligence and Success
I don’t set out to prove or disprove a linear relationship between a person’s higher reasoning abilities and his success. Overcoming an overwhelming personal tendency to deviate towards one one side of this research, i take an oath that i will look into the facts with an open mind!
Everybody at some stage or the other has seen people who need comparitively less efforts to achieve success. While others need to work hard like horses, these people seem to cruise though hurdles(for example, exams)without putting in too much toil. Yes – i’m talking about the intelligent ones in our species. They appear to be innately, chronically intelligent. And then there are others who slog hard – or at least appear to – but to no avail. They might put in double the amount of working hours into a project/task, but seem to fall mysteriously short of their goals. I’m referring to the less gifted of the lot.
I am personally intrigued by the problem that do people inherit intelligent from their parents? Can IQ be altered during one’s lifetime? If yes, then how and how much? What is the relationship between intelligence and success? Are we slaves to our genes?
An area in the frontal lobe of brain is called the silent area – the area of your forehead. It has been proved that the volume of grey and white matter of this area of brain is related with the ‘fluid intelligence’ of the person. Close to 70% of intelligence is heritable. And the interesting point to note here is that as one grows older, genetic influences on IQ increase! That means you’re born with certain mental tools, which become progressively more apparent and conspicous.
- IQ can explain about 30 percent of the academic performances. No doubt that high IQ children tend to learn more out of their classes than others, but other factors like memory and interest also play a big role in determining one’s academic success.
- IQ is largely, if not wholly, related to one’s income. Inherited wealth, race and schooling are the other factors that influence income.
- People with low IQ have higher divorce rates and crime rates.
The IQ of the society is represented by a bell curve, with average score of 100. A person having IQ of more than 144 is termed genius.
But, a common error is to assume that because something is heritable, it is unchangable. It is possible to up one’s IQ by training. Training in working memory increases intelligence, so does playing games like puzzles and chess. Family factors also affect IQ a lot, but only upto late childhood.
The good old virtues like wisdom, goodness, love and passion still hold as good as ever. Working hard and doing good still have no substitutes. It’s cool to be intelligent. But then, so what? Happiness is a state of mind, and you are as happy as you decide to be!
Important Notice
The bottle i’m holding in the header pic is ABSOLUTELY NON ALCOHOLIC.
Am i in Italy or is it just my this blog going all italicised?
Sidhuism
Here’s my favorite one-liners, reprtedly spoken be Sidhu(taken from an email frwd) :
1 As you grow older u get better unless you are a banana.
2 A Sailor has a wife on every port.
3 Fear is the dark-room where negatives develop.
4 Kenya in South Africa was like a mountain having labor pains.
5 You don’t judge the Horse-power of a vehicle by the size of its exhaust.
6 I don’t trust the Indian batting, they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
7 When you fall on your back side the only place you can look is up
8 He is a constipated batsman/bowler, puts in a lot of effort and has very little results to show for in the end.
9 The ball missed the bat like a kiss in a hindi movie
10 Deep Dasgupta is as confused as a child is in a topless bar!
11 Ganguly has thrown a drowning man both ends of the rope
12 A girl born beautiful is half married
13 Indians should now be on their toes like midgets at a urinal.
14 Some students will drink from the fountain of knowledge – others will simply gargle.
15 It is better to pluck the fruit from the tree than wait for it to fall.
16 The batsman is like a three-wheeler. Sucks a lot of fuel, but cannot go beyond 30!
17 The ball went so high it could have got an airhostess on its way down!
18 The only thing you get in life without effort is dandruff.
19 Age has been perfect fire extinguisher for flaming youth.
20 In times of prosperity, remember it’s the fattest pig that goes to the butcher.
21 The world is a large fruit cake you will always find some nuts in it.
22 All that comes from a cow is not milk..
Ank Bulletin 2
It’s time for sequels. Namaskar, here we go :
– I’m home, and growing fatter like never before. I see the tyre around my belly inflating regularly. But that’s no big deal. Ketan, 4 years younger, is 4 kgs heavier than me.
– My computer gave me much trouble in the last few days. First, it refused to open the Windows properly, and then when i showed him what i could do with it ‘physically’, it refused to start up at all. [Special thanks to Alok, Sharma not Raghuvanshi. In order to make my system faster, he did something with it's virtual memory - and landed me in a soup. Call me Alok, if you're reading this.]
– I’m going back to Aurangabad on 27th.
– I’m reading this moderately good book called ‘Use Your Head’ by Tony Buzan. This is another in the series of self-help books i’ve read in the past 6 months. I desparately want to get back to racy, raunchy fiction. But my next read is going to be Philosophical Questions. Kharga Library hip hip hurray.
– I’ve done some research on the relationship between intelligence and success. Will publish it soon…
–I’m feeling strange that i’ve come home and i’m not meeting Manish. Sincerely sorry dude….
– Love Story 2050 looks good in promos, though unrealistic. AR Rehman has caught me again with Jaane Tu…
Home Again
I’m home !!! After fluctuating freely between the options of getting my wait-listed ticket cancelled, or, taking the risk of travelling with waiting-list number 6 – i chose the latter, finally. The journey was good. It was easy than i was expecting – a bribe of Rs 200 did the job.
I got a seat next to an aunty from Delhi. She reminded me of my teachers till high-school, who mouthed phrases like ” meri vo bhabhi nature wise bohot achhi hai” and ”meri saari family amreeka mein settle hai”. She was a good aunty, told me in slight detail about Sai Baba ji. And, yes. About her neice who got selected in AIIMS this year : “Bohot reserve rehti hai. Padhai mein jyaada layak to nahi thi. Pata nahi kaise ho gaya. Chalo, jo hua achha hi hua”. Anyways.
Now i’m home! Living all those dreams i had fantasised about! The mangoes are legendary this season. No idea when i’ll be going back…
Histology-boring-iron man
This histology journal….such a headache. My batch teacher kept me waiting for 5 days. She had checked my journal but forgot to write my name in the list. And then started the long wait…
Since college is over, so nothing interesting is happening these days. And by interesting i need not necessarily mean gossip-inducing kaands(scandals). Studies have effectively painfully taken a back-seat with just 20 days to go for the pre-finals.
In the meanwhile i’ve seen many movies. Iron Man is such a treat….wonderful, mind-blowing. One of the best superhero movies i’ve seen.
Shashi Don – on a roll
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s what one of my out-of-this-world friend has written in his ‘About Me’ on Orkut.com.
A few points you must remember before even trying to talk to me:
# Always write good, grammatically correct and correct spelling English. Or you can seek Punjabi or Hindi for your help. Sms English is sure to be ignored.
If u rite lk ds, 4get & 4give me.1) I can be the rudest person you might have confronted with. Usually an illogical comment or some nonsense triggers my rage and fury. I am quite sensitive to stupidity. Some people actually have started crying while talking to me.
2) NEVER ADVISE ME. I say that with capitals.
I have solution to all my problems, and I know how to handle a situation more than you would imagine.3) I do not like making friends with new people. I have not come on earth because a god wanted to play with me. I am a master of myself. I am here not just to eat, live, have friends and be merry.
4) Do not try to praise me. Firstly you would not find words. Secondly I do not like “others” praising me.
5) I do not care for anything, least my life. I can even live alone on a planet. I do not require most material comforts.
6) I do not think I will believe in gods and religions in my life. Peoplemade religions and gods because they cowards. Moreover I was not consulted before those illogical rules, malpractices and superstitions were framed.
*********READ ME*********
Friends in “My Friends” list are my real friends, not some random people. I just do not add people I have not met or do not have any prior conversation. Helping you out of a tough Physics or theism problem is just not enough to be a friend.
Do not add me if I do not know you or if I dislike you.
Not going home…
Ewww, this feeling is truly terrible. My plans of going home this month are just not materialising, and i’m not taking this development too well. I feel stuck, tired, frustrated and hopeless. I dont know, really, when i’d get out of this state and start studying effectively. I was waiting all this while for something good to happen, like a visit to home, and when i got the tickets booked for 13th i had realistically started fantasising about my computer, my tv, my music system, my dadi’s rajma-chawal, kheer, mango-shake, makkhan wale paranthe, my favourite place on earth – the kharga library, and my mom, dad and bhai, and the guitar he’s bought. But that’s not to be, for now. It’s so disheartening. My ’speck of dust’ theory fails to buoy me. Preponement of prelims exams from 11 June to 2 June is the reason i’m in this fix.
Next chance of going home will be in late July, after the finals.
After a very long time i’m at a stage where i’m unable to put my thoughts into words. I’m not prioritising well – i dont know what to write, i just want to write(read type). Himanee keeps on saying people are just layer and layers, and that thought lingers in my brain for like forever. I’m starting to discover that i don’t know myself; more often than not i won’t be able to predict what i’ll decide/do. And reading in the newspaper about a German research that one possibly doesn’t have any control over one’s actions didn’t help either.
There’s some kind of cycle going on with my life(like cercadian,oestrous or er… menstrual)….though with an irregular time period. There’re days of elation, and then days of depression, na, maybe, non-elation. Okay, i’m starting to get control of the situation.
The library started this beautiful new rule that it’ll remain locked from 9 to 12 at night, that is, you cant get out of it during this period once you get in. Helps a lot. I need to be more regular though.
