Intelligence - Factual problem solving

Factual problems have facts, data, and information such as:

• writing and reading memos or reports;
• constructing or analyzing a set of financial statements;
• understanding the legal requirements for a regulated business;
• writing a proposal for a new product line;
• evaluating the creditworthiness of a corporation

To deal with factual problem, we need to:

• understand the meaning of facts;
• see the implications of facts, the patterns and relationships;
• reason to conclusions from a set of facts with deeper thinking and develop reasoned arguments (discerning the cause and effect, address the pros and cons, generalizing from specifics and using specifics to support generalization);
• communicate facts and their implications (organizing facts and ideas in an orderly way, use word precisely, maintaining clarity and directness, presenting reasoned arguments, summarizing details and conclusions concisely, hearing the message from the audience view)

The hallmarks of high-performance factual problem-solving include:

• perceiving facts clearly (focus on finding, absorbing and cocmprehending facts without distortion from emotion or preconception)
• thinking deeply and broadly and in terms of relationships and patterns
• reasoning soundly, sometimes by applying a framework
• communicating clearly, directly, and concisely

Intelligence - wise about wisdom

In a very stable world in which nothing ever goes wrong, it might be better to be stupid and happy than wise and anxious. Otherwise, you need wisdom to cope with difficulties.

Wisdom is about awareness. If you know the road, life is easier. If you can see the road, life is easier. If you can discover new roads, life is richer. If you know you have a choice of roads, life is richer. The purpose of thinking is to arrange the inner and outer world so as to serve and improve our values. Awareness is much more than information. Awareness is information as it relates to you.

Perception is not what the eye sees but what the brain sees. When you read the world "ice-cream" you do not just see an arrangement of letters. In your "mind's eye" you get an impression of the appearance, taste, texture and temperature of an ice-cream. Wisdom takes place in perception. If our perceptions are wrong then no amount of logical excellence will give the right answer. Our traditional intellectual effort has been directed at logic and so little at perception. Logic will not change emotion and feelings. Perception will.

Most of the mistakes in thinking are mistakes in perception. Seeing only part of the situation. Jumping to conclusions. Misinterpretation caused by feelings. Everyone has his own logic perception. "Everyone is always right - no one is ever right." Wisdom acknowledges the value and the reality of individual logic bubbles.

Intelligence - Contribute

There is investment and there is risk. They are willing to take the risk because of the potential reward. But how do you invest time and effort in something new when the reward is not as defined as in the business example? Learning to ride a bicycle is not easy, not fun and not a good way of getting anywhere. The learning period is hard work. But when you have learned how to ride a bicycle you enjoy it and get to places faster.

Some people contribute and some people are passive. Being passive may be a choice based on a full experience of contributing and not contributing. Being passive may be basd on the choice of "laziness" as a low-hassle state. Being passive may also be based on lack of experience of the joy of contributing. Contribution can get rid of the boredom an dgive the plus of involvement and achievement.

The choice is between being passive and contributing. You can contribute to yourself, to those around you or to the world at large. Being passive is like being a cork floating in a stream. You go wherever the stream takes you. Contributing is like being in a canoe on the stream. You can go where you want or let the stream take you.

There is a joy in achievement. There is a joy in making things happen. That is why most gardeners garden. This is something that a person has done and can stand back and see the difference he has made to the world.

Wisdom is often pictured as passive, contemplative and reflective. There is the wise old person who sits and observes the world. If asked, this person will seek to pass on the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime. There is no reason why wisdom should not be active and contribute. Wisdom is not only a matter of adjusting to a difficult world, but also a contribution to improving the world.

Intelligence - Hostage and slave

People will over-react if his hot button is pressed. A person who loses his temper easily is hostage to that emotion. That person is also hostage to another person who knows how to make him lose his temper.

A puppet may seem full of life and animation but every movement and every expression is controlled through the attached strings by someone else. We are free to do what we are supposed to do, just as apuppet is free to jerk about as required. This does not mean that this control is bad. It might sometimes be very good.

Awareness of the "possibility" of these multiple controlling influences is part of wisdom.

There are the expectations we have of ourselves. There are multiple expectations that others have of us. Expectations are somewhat like the multiple walls of a prison. When you get over the first wall you find there is another. There are the powerful expectations which people have of themselves. These are both sources of happiness and the source of unhappiness. Without expectations we get no further than where we are. It is expectations of ourselves that drive us on to achievement and success. Most successful people have had strong expectations of themselves. At the same time, unhappiness is the gap between expectations and the talent to fulfil them.

For youngsters faced with the problems and changing values of growing up, the peer group of mates is the best source of identity. They just follow others "herd behaviour".

Wisdom is a matter of making your own choices. If you choose to get your identity from the group that is your choice. You do not need to be permanently bound by that choice or bound by it in all matter. People who follow fashion slavishly still allow themselves moments of difference.

Passion is a commitment of feelings, effort and everything else to some performance. This will take you over and pull you along with.

The principle of justice is a sacrifice of freedom that you hope also to get justice when you need it. Wisdom knows that the choice is not between freedom and restriction, but between either/or choices and the designed use of both. Wisdom is knowing that you have this choice. The next step does not have to be determined by where you are right now.

Almost all the successful people had had a strong sense of "the expectation of success". When things were bad and there was a downturn of fortune they did not despair. They regarded every downturn as merely another step towards the goal. This strong sense of perspective is a key factor in wisdom.

Intelligenc - Contrary and contradiction

Sometimes some values that are contrary or contradiction against one another. There are a number of practical strategies we can use for dealing:

Accept both
When we accept both sides our minds then seek to understand this in practical terms. Understand them in details may lead to a new definition or value. A fast slow car might be a slow car with a fast acceleration.

Combine them
This is a deliberate design process. Combining peace and excitement may mean seeking excitement from a stable base.

Alternate
This means switching from one value to the contrary value and back again. You can be sensitive at times and ruthless at other times.

Parallel thinking
Design usually requires that a range of values is kept in mind the whole time. A low cost car that provide touches with luxury features.

Wisdom involves avoiding those harsh rules which we force upon ourselves because they are useful in some situations. Behaviour can be situation-dependent rather than ego-dependent. We need use different approach in different situation.

Intelligence - Value

The purpose of thinking is to arrange our internal world and external world so as to serve and impose our values. The purpose of action is to put that thinking into effect.

It is a function of wisdom to be aware of all the different values involved in a situation. It is a function of wisdom to become aware of the different values of the different parties involved in a situation. It is a function of wisdom eto have some sort of priority of values so that the most important ones get proper attention. It is a function of wisdom to design action so as to satisfy as many values as possible. It is a function of wisdom consiciously to trade off one value against another when both cannot be satisfied.

There are cultural values, local values and family values. Much of the time we go along with these expections becuase such values have indeed become our values or because we fear group disapproval if we do not.

There are spiritual values and religious values. There are material values and achievement values (These have a direct value and an indirect one because they may lead to "recognition", "power" and status, which are also values). There are the basic personal values of emotions, feelings, desires and enjoyment.

Values determine how we see things in the first place. When we are frightened every strange noise is interpreted by perception as a potential problem.

Positive values drive our perception and action. Negative values are the ones we seek to avoid. We seek to avoid pain, discomfort, humiliation, hassile, bad taste, embarrassment, etc.

We seek to avoid insecurity. But we also seek to achieve security.

Values give purpose, meaning, enjoyment and "value' to life. It is the task of wisdom to understand values in perception; in the design of acctionh; in making choices and in judgement.

When you have a violent headache there is no higher value than an aspirin. When the headache is gone then aspirin has a minor security value. So there are values of the moment and values that are more permanent. Because different parties have different values, the skill of a negotiator is to seek, through design, to produce an outcome which accommodates as many of the different values as possible.

It is said that Napoleon found it cheaper to reward his men with medals rather than with more money. Recognition and honour are powerful motivators. They are power values.

Love is a general value stimulator. Love makes food taste better. It is part of wisdom to know that logic never change love. Logic never changes any emotion or feeling.

But perception can change feelings and emotions. If you put forward a possible way of looking at the situation, then perception can change and with it the feeling. If your perception triggers an emotion, then that will also limit your perception. Feelings should come in at the end in order to judge the situation or help design the appropriate action.

Wisdom is very much concerned with values in the following ways:
Awareness - aware of all the different values involved in the situation. You need to have in mind a wide range of "positive values" in order to recongnize them. You need to have previous experience to recognize as values do not declare themselves.
Importancec of values - Not all values are equally important. Some are "essential" and some are "luxury" values. It would be good to have the luxury values but there is an absolute need to have the essential values. There is skill in deciding where the other values are placed along this spectrum.
Design - values are the essential drivers of design. It is not possible to have all the values operating at every stage.
Reconcile - You have to apply your own thinking and almost always applies in negotiation to reconcile competing values and contrary values.
Trade-off - when design has not succeeded in reconciling different values or accommodating different values there may have to be a "trade-off". It is never a matter of ignoring, neglecteing or discarding a value. There should be a conscious decision to give up one value in exchange for another one (trading).
Assessment - part of our assessment is based on whether the suggestion will work at all, part on the cost and investment needed. When a choice or decision has been made it is useful to spell out reasons behind that choice.
Prediction - values are a key part of prediction. If you want to know how some person or some party is going to act,l then you need to know the driving values.
Changing values - values change.

Wisdom is a matter of knowing what the values are, how to cope with them and how to use them.

Intelligence - balance

If something is good then more of it must be better. If some money is good then more money is better. If democracy is good then more is better.

No salt on food leaves the food tasting insipid. Some salt is good. More salt gives an unpleasant taste. Even more salt makes the food uneatable.

Some wine apparently reduces the risk of heart attack. More wine may make you drunk and too much may give you cirrhosis of the liver.

I suspect there is a "salt curve" for intelligence in a nation. If people are too intelligenct then they can spell all their time quarrelling and fighting with each other instead of working constructively together. You could even argue that unusually good brakes on a car would be dangerous because the car behind would not expect such quick stopping and would run into the back of you.

It is very much part of wisdom to have a range of such models in mind. They then become "possibilities' through which we look at situations.

There is a threshold or critical mass model
At the beginning when one a small number of people is interested, it will stay at an interest level. Once it reached to a large number of people (exceeding the threshold), the impact to the society will be huge. Rumours may have no effect on morale for a long time and then suddenly morale deteriorates. Unemployment may not affect the economy for a time and then suddenly the fear of being unemployed hits spending and planning. Increased spending on education may not havfe much effect until a threshold has been passed.

Once again, wisdom suggests that you hold "possibilities" in mind.

Intelligence - generalization

Generalizations are a sort of box, definition or category. Many of them are true and very useful. It will be helpful to make a quick decision.

"Judgement boxes" is powerful, but can also be dangerous if used badly. Any powerful system can be used for the wrong purposes. Any powerful system can be used badly.

A knife is very useful for cutting up food. A knife may also be used to stab someone.

One of the roles of wisdom is to make sure that our judgement-box system of thinking is used sensibly. The key danger of the judgement-box system is arrogance. How can we prevent that shift from useful certainty to dangerous arrogance? We need to use the "boxes" to help us but not to imprision us.

Wisdom suggests we use terms like "usually", "by and large", "most of the time", "probably" and "maybe", instead of the more absolute terms like "must", "cannot", "always" and "never". The shift in expression diminishes the danger of arrogance while retaining the utility of the boxes.

Where generalization are going to be helpful we can accept more "righteousness", but where generalizations are harmful then we need to be much less certain.

Another danger of the judgement box system is that the boxes may be out of date. In a rapidly changing world the boxes derived from the past may not be sufficient to understand the future.

Intelligence - getting the truth

Socrates was concerned with argument and with reomoving "untruth". He felt that if you removed all "untruth" through critical attack, then you must be left with the "truth".

Aristotle put everything together as an operating system. There are categories and definitions that were set up by experience and clarified by argument. When you came across something, you "judged" in which box that something belonged. If the matter was complex then you sought to "analyze" it down into smaller parts that were easier to recognize. The assumption is that every complex thing is made up of standard parts, just as music is a combination of the basic notes. It works very well indeed. It is practical, effective and simple. It provides the certainty we need (except we need to know the interactions among those standard smaller parts).

But what if the boxes are old-fashioned? What if the judgement is biased? The system still works very well but the results can be dangerous.

Intelligence - Wisdom

Wisdom is do with:
- broader view. more factors, people, etc.,
- deeper view. the level of impact, the ripple effect extended,
- richer view. beyond the box, more laterally, etc

Wisdom insists that you think slowly, very slowly. If you think fast you are very likely to be trapped by the habitual pattern. Wisdom is the ability to see through the surface appearance. Wisdom is the ability to imagine possibilities and to consider them.

"Now" and "Then" - the edge effect
One of the prime duties that wisdom is called upon to perform is to cope with the problem of "now" and "then".

A young person drops out of school to work and start earning money is "now". Later the earning capacity of that young person is substantially below that of his classmates who got more education (This is "then", or in a long run).

When the consequence of an action is spelled out, you want to direct your attention to the consequence. For example, if you know how harmful smoking mighte be then you do not smoke. In practice, the consequences effect is much weaker than it should be. You always believe that the bad consequences "will happen only to other people".

Two extreme group of "now" and "then"
There are people who want to live only for today and have fun today. Tomorrow will be coped with when tomorrow arrives. If you are healthy and have confidence in yourself then you will adjust to whatever circumstance arises. This is an attractive philosophy provided "getting by" and "having fun" are sufficient. They may well for the moment. But will they be later?

Then there are those who are forever "working for the future". For such people there is never a "now" or "today". If they reach one stage then they must work towards the next. If the enjoyment of work is a high value, this makes sense. But if work is a means to an end, on ehas to ask when that "end" is going to be reached.

Achievement is a value just as much as enjoyment. There are personal choices as to how the two get mixed.

As always, wisdom is about balance.

Intelligence - PMI

Without thinking:
1. Act purely on instinct like insects;
2. Repeat the same routines;
3. Do what someone else decides and orders;
4. Follow the emotion of the moment;

Part of thinking consists of giving ourselves "attention-directing" instructions (only pick up the information that you think it is more critical). Some tools can increase the breadth of perception, such as PMI (plus minus interesting).

Third arm emerging from the chest using PMI.

Plus points
- sparm arm in case of injury
- hold ladder and use both hands for the tools
Minus points
- you could not sleep on your face
- you might need to cut a hole in your clothes
Interesting points
- would you be "centre"-handed instead of right-handed
- on which side would the thumb be

Intelligence - Faults of thinking

Most of the faults of thinking are faults of perception. People only see only part of the situation, bring along an inadequate frame and using emotion selection of information.

Many of the deficiencies in behaviour could also be seen as faults of perception: arrogance, selfishness, despair, overreaction and dependence.

Everyone is behaving logically within his "bubble of perception"/"own perceived world". Behind his bubble of perception is concepts or value to him.

Age can provide richer experience, but not necessarily so. A teacher with twenty years' experience may indded have twenty years' experience or may have twenty times a one-year experience. If you always look at things in the same way then more experience only provides more books on the same shelf. Age permits you to have more experience but only if you permit yourself to be open to new experiences. If you never change your mind, you just stick to yesterday's thinking.

Intelligence - wise people

Wise people who do not jump to conclusions. They take a broader view. They give very practical answers. They take a balanced view. They are not so dogmaticc. They are more tolerant. They look deeper in things. They can generate and consider alternatives. They look at things differently and from many angles.

We live in the world in the world we "see"/preceive. But the world we see is not the physical world around us but the "perceived" world in our minds. The physical world may be exactly the same but different people will see different things. A story similar to a couple of blind people explain an elephant by their own perception. Each one tell something different, but each is correct or each is wrong. It is better to say it is not complete.

Our mind does not get information without a feeling. It will tag something good, bad, etc. The mind brings in information, experience, frames, present contexts, feelings and emotions. All these get organized by perception to give us "the way we look at the situation".

Three intellectual ages of man:
0 to 5 years - the age of "why". They just get more information to link up these small pieces of perceived world to bigger perception.

5 to 12 years - the age of "why not". They are probing for information, and play with ideas. They are free to be creative and to try out new possibilities.

12 to 75+ - the age of "because". Over time our individual perceptions will accumulate, and settle down to provide us our personal view of the world. This is how we see the world, and we react/act based on this perception. That would be full of inadequaies, prejudices, stereotypes and confusions. However, this is our own world.

Intelligence - Cleverness vs Wisdom

Cleverness is like a lens with a very sharp focus and wisdom is more like a wide-angle lens. Wisdom is not a function of intelligencec. Many people whose education has been simple are much wiser than those who have learned a lot from books. The explanation is that "living" may teach more about wisdom than traditional books.

Wisdom is more about perspective than about detail. Cleverness is about how we get information and how we use information. Wisdom is about how the information fits into the world around and our own values.

Cleverness is like knowing, technically, how to cook a superb meal. Wisdom is like desinging a meal to fit the available ingredients and also to fit what we feel like eating at this moment.

Cleverness is like having a library full of books. Wisdom is knowing which book to read at this moment. Wisdom is the art with which percecption crafts experience to serve our values.