Thursday, 30 May 2024 ------------------------ Hello. All is well. Continuing with chapter seven, we try to understand what intelligence is. There's no clear definition of intelligence. Early theory sees intelligence made up of one underlying, general factor. The g-factor. There's a theory that divides intelligence into two parts: crystallized and fluid. Crystallized intelligence is acquired knowledge that one can retain and recall. Fluid intelligence is one's ability to acquire knowledge, connect the dots, and solve problems. I imagine you could say crystallized intelligence is wisdom, and fluid intelligence is smartness. I think it's a good idea to work on your crystallized intelligence, but you have to be intentional with the knowledge you learn. I try to apply the knowledge from previous books to the new books I read. I think this has a compounding effect, as you can more quickly acquire new knowledge because you have knowledge you can relate to. However, one should not be afraid of not retaining everything. It's simply the brain optimizing for what's important, though if you're mentally unwell, this process could be dysfunctional, perhaps? On that note, it's been fun to return to my earlier writings as I notice patterns and reoccurring thoughts. It's valuable for a person like me who can easily forget the past, repeat mistakes and go in circles. It's enjoyable to reconnect to previous moments of my life from a more third-person view. Making my public writing has helped me, but I don't think I'd recommend it to most people. I'm in a position that allows me to do this. I think it's better for most people to bond and share with a few close people. I may simply be a bit odd, but I've never felt more understood than I feel when writing, even if it's only to myself. I guess it hurts more to have disconnection than no connection. I don't know how I feel about the sense of being a mind alone in the universe. I think I've become more okay with it. I feel connected to others in other ways. I'm not sure what that even means. I guess there are many levels of connection. I think it's the emotional connection that is the most substantial, but I already feel a bit emotionally overwhelmed. It's tricky, haha. I like the idea of feeling connected to everyone. It's so lovely. There's a lot of misery and pain in the world today. I think it's one's moral obligation to keep the human spirit alive. To not let fear consume us or spiritlessness (apathy) but keep our love and faith in humanity alive in the face of horror. It's not to be naive but brave. Why give up? You may as well put up a fight. Is there a greater calling or purpose than to keep love alive? Our human spirit, our collective minds, is what transcends our agency and experience. I was thinking. Isn't our emotions the spirits that connect us? We can see things differently intellectually but more easily connect emotionally, right? That makes sense, but it's much more complicated in practice. But I think we can get far with emotions. I think one can mistake an act of fear to be an act of love. It's not to love to tolerate acts that bring spiritlessness or fear. That's to give up love. I think love and fear are the two fundamental emotions of humans interpersonally. It's really cool that we humans have this ability to transcend the physical and create our own realities through our collective minds. Right? Those realities will actually shape physical reality. That's pretty cool, you have to admit. As I wrote before, it's our greatest strength and greatest weakness. God is a feeling, a spirit in minds. A bind of minds. Love binds; fear divides. God is perfect. God is love. Mind is not. Mind is love and fear. I like using mind instead of human as it puts no restriction on what can follow love. It's our moral obligation to follow love and allow all to follow love. When I think, I find love and fear to be the root of all emotions. I think hate can arise from fear. Hate has a connotation of something bad or evil. Fear is more neutral in the sense you can have compassion for them but love is not to allow fear to consume the mind. In practice, we should strive to be a loving mind but accept we can never reach it in its fullest sense. The mind is not perfect. I'm primarily writing for myself to use as a guide. It has been difficult for me to resonate with anything spiritual. I like the simplicity of god as love, and I find it makes sense and is compatible with my current knowledge and understanding. It's a good starting point. It feels genuine, not like pretending. When my mind is in a state of love, I seem to act more competently. You are more capable of being pragmatic. You feel energized and solve problems more effectively because you want love to defeat fear. You have compassion for an opposition because you can acknowledge their fear but not allow it to consume you. Returning to the book, we've also got the triarchic theory of intelligence, made up of three parts: practical, creative, and analytical. The first one, practical intelligence, is what you'd think of as someone with street smarts. I'd say one with good intra/interpersonal skills. Perhaps the ability to apply and use feelings appropriately, as they ultimately guide you through your immediate environment, internally and externally, in practice. The second is creative intelligence, which is like thinking outside the box. Having an imagination. Finding novel and unexpected solutions. The third is analytical intelligence, like raw computational power to process and dissect information to make sense and find solutions. We have the multiple intelligence theory, which splits intelligence into eight categories. There's less empirical evidence. I think this theory takes a more practical, human approach, making our view of intelligence less abstract or generic. Emotional intelligence is the combination of the intra/interpersonal skills in the multiple intelligence theory. Cultural intelligence is interesting. From what I understand, it's one's ability to integrate and function in a particular culture and its values. The most comprehensive theory is the Cattel-Horn-Carrol (CHC) theory of intelligence, comprising intelligence into three levels. Could be interesting to look further into another time.