Intelligence isn't all it's cracked up to be

摘要

We humans have a fascination with minds that penetrate mysteries through sheer intellectual brilliance. Exceptional mental feats, we are convinced, must issue from exceptional individual minds. Albert Einstein's insistence that success is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration just doesn't resonate with our instincts. One reason might be that by fixating on intellect, we further the idea that we stand apart from nature as the only creatures that orient themselves by deliberate reasoning. Yet each day brings more evidence to undermine this view. For example, modern psychological studies show that when people make good decisions it is often by "gut feeling" rather than conscious calculation. It seems our vaunted intelligence is not all it's cracked up to be.