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Michael V. Ellis

Project Management Organization Operations Manager,

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Intelligence Is?

'I believe education is not wisdom and genuine intelligence is a gift of few; an innate ability to apply knowledge in unequivocally pioneering ways. Simplicity of thought and crispness and clarity of mind, to overcome the insurmountable questions of humanity. (Michael V. Ellis 2011)'

I placed this under 'debate' with the assumption that there will be some conflicting views presented. Please debate with respect. We all have our ideas and you and I want to explore those ideas, even if we find we are not going to adopt them.

Please do take the opportunity to respond to another persons posting. Good discussion only advances our knowledge. Oh and be sure to search the word here on TED after you post. There are a number of related videos and presentations on the subject.

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    Joe B.

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    Jan 5 2012: Michael, Initially I liked your definition of intelligence as the wording was quite compelling. However, after some thought your definition seems to imply intelligence requires a high degree of confidence in one's own knowledge and opinions. Confidence often leads to difficulty in accepting new and alternative ideas and points of view.

    By your definition, can a person of intelligence admit to not knowing? How does a capacity to learn factor in?
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      Michael V. Ellis

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      Jan 5 2012: Joe now you’re requiring me to dive into something that I face every day in quality and process design. I guess I have to respond by saying it comes down to yet another fundamental question, what is confidence. I believe confidence includes exactly what you state; having the confidence to know, that you know what you know and what you don't know (Say that three times real fast) and being open to the ideas of others. Maybe we are talking an desired state of human perfection and reality bites us with egos, arrogance, and single mindedness? Well I can answer my own last question LOL.
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        Joe B.

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        Jan 5 2012: Isn't it all relative? Intelligence, confidence, a "desired state of human perfection" are all within the eye of the beholder or the tester. Someone who is intelligent to me may not seem intelligent to someone else and my opinion is subject to change with time. Intelligence tests can only measure relative to the intelligence of the people who created the test and only within the scope of the test. There isn't an absolute measure of intelligence that I am aware of. In fact, many people who have been great contributors to civilization and knowledge are considered intelligent because of a single or a few works but were complete failures in other efforts and had difficulty with other aspects of their life. According to the scientific theory of entropy, perfection is not possible for any length of time but perhaps at the cost of sacrificing other areas of ones life a brief moment of brilliant perfection can be achieved.
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          Michael V. Ellis

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          Jan 6 2012: You are making it difficult to debate the subject when you are right! How I enjoy my moments of brilliance. So rare and unusual are they that when the epiphany strikes, I become confused.

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