Focus, Part 1
by Scott
Intelligence is not inherent; study deeply the thoughts of anyone or thing, and you will certainly find intelligence therein. The concept of intelligence is one of the most qualified aspects of American, and possibly, world culture. “Smart” is in accolade that the intelligent people and things get pinned to their lapels, while insults smack the faces of others (“dumb,” idiot,” stupid,” and “retarded” come to mind).
With things like smartphones, for example, it’s easy to see why they’re smart, why they’re dumb, and how their simply intangible intelligence is a direct result of conveyed human intelligence. But smartphones also connote smart people, as “dumb” phones, or anything but a smartphone, is a sign of lower class, less affluence, and, naturally, dumbness. Despite the seeming separation of gadget and self, thing and person, there really is not separation. We are our gadgets, and are gadgets are us—smart or dumb.
But smart people create these intelligent smartphones and computers—or at least design them. No smart machine conceives them, and no dumb person does either. So we can truly never separate the two, machine and man, because one cannot exist without the other. But even phones that aren’t very smart—or not as smart—can still be pretty smart, especially if we humans take the time to learn—and focus our attention—how to use them (phones that are no cordless, for example, even though antiquated, are smart because they often work when electricity is not available). But why are these phones not as smart? Simply, because their designer wasn’t as smart as someone else.
Was the smartphone designer smarter than the other designer? Was the team better? What does it mean to be smarter?
Smartness, or intelligence, is such a relative term. Sure, the designer may have acted more intelligently, and thus created some more intelligent, but does this mean he is a more intelligent person? or that he’s a smarter person? The short answer is no. From years of working with children of all “intelligence levels,” as well as working with adults struggling to understand modern technology, I have seen intelligence splayed out across the mind—what one person cannot understand, such as how email functions, another commands; while one can sense the slightest hints of emotive body language, another remains blissfully unaware. Is one smarter than the other? Obviously not. Is a math major smarter than an English major? Well yes, in certain areas. But in other areas, of course not. Is a professor smarter than a composer who may have never graduated high school? The answer, as always, is, “in some ways yes, in other ways no.” I’ve wanted to uncover, or at least try to understand, the ways in which seemingly blank minds become so different, some so smart, and others not as smart.
The game-changer: focus.
