‘Academic’ Intelligence: On the Various of Types of Intelligence

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‘We are looking for an ambitious, hard- working and intelligent person to join our team.’

The above sentence is, without a doubt, painfully familiar to each and every one of us.

Nevertheless, few of us had ever thought about what the underlined bit above actually meant.

In fact, most people automatically assume that being ‘intelligent’ means having a first class degree from a good university, being fluent in four languages, being well- informed on topics such as politics, business, art, etc.

I should like to note that I respectfully disagree with the above premise in that I personally believe that there are, in fact, three types of intelligence.

I shall opt to explore those in turn and discuss them in some detail.

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‘Academic’ Intelligence (‘AI’)

AI refers to the one’s ability to assimilate and comprehend vast amounts of information or information of complex and intricate nature in a limited time frame and under considerable pressure.

AI individuals tend to do well in sectors such as academics, teaching, research, analytics, law and sciences.

Such individuals tend to concentrate more on their work rather than social interaction and cannot, consequently, develop their ‘Social’ Intelligence (‘SI’) as well as others.

Having said that, though, if among other AI individuals, such people can develop their SI, albeit to a limited extent.

‘Social’ Intelligence (‘SI’)

SI refers to one’s ability to efficiently interact with others, regardless of their professional or personal background, whilst properly assessing various social situations by reacting to those in the most proper and timely manner without adversely affecting any of the parties involved.

SI individuals tend to do well in sectors such as journalism, management, human resources, PR, marketing and advertising and consultancy.

Used to being among people, such individuals tend to be more relaxed and have a sense of humour and a somewhat soothing presence which makes them look more trustworthy and friendly in the eyes of others.

SI can be effectively combined with AI and ‘Everyday’ Intelligence (‘EI’) but rarely both.

‘Everyday’ Intelligence (or ‘Common Sense’) (‘EI’)

EI refers to one’s ability to approach situations and tasks from the most practical angle by coming up with a pragmatic, cost- effective and time- efficient solution which applies the least effort required and produces the best result possible.

EI individuals tend to do well in sectors such as architecture, accounting, planning, actuarial sciences and investment.

Such individuals often tend to see everything and everyone around them as numbers and equations that they can easily read which can sometimes be erroneously translated as arrogance.

Being quite opportunistic, EI individuals can easily develop a high level of SI which they can make good use of in their chosen fields.

On the other hand, it is incredibly difficult for EI and AI to co- exist  as they clash in that the former sees the latter as being unnecessarily wordy and colourful whilst the latter sees the former as incredibly dull and dry.

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Although the above is but an overview of my theory, I hope that it has introduced some degree of clarity in the columns that I have chosen to write under.

As homo sapiens, it is high time we realised that every single one of us possesses at least one, if not a combination, of the above.

The sooner we realise that, the better our standard of life will become.