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2 Power Up Your Mind

INTELLIGENCE AND THE MIND

A similarly narrow view has been taken toward the idea of intelli-
gence in the past century. While the word “intelligence” entered
the English language in Europe during the early Middle Ages, it
has become a synonym for IQ or intellectual quotient. This one
kind of intelligence has dominated our experiences of schooling
and influenced many of the psychometric tests we undergo and use
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at work. Invented by Alfred Binet and William Stern at the begin-
ning of the twentieth century, IQ’s influence has been pernicious,
artificially inflating the importance of language and figures and
taking no account of creativity, common sense, or the ability to
manage emotions.
Yet, we know now that intelligence involves a combination of
“know-how” and “know-what” across a multitude of contexts. If
you are intelligent, you are good at using your mind in many dif-
ferent ways. If your mind is working well, you are able to learn to
do many things that you did not think you could do. Nurture not

nature is in the ascendency.
For most of the time that it has existed as a concept, intelligence
has been linked to the brain. Interestingly, the ancient Egyptians
believed that a person’s ability to think resided in their heart, while
their judgment came from either their brain or their kidneys!
One of the most compelling accounts of how the human brain
has evolved is contained in Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the
Mind. As an archeologist, Mithen charts the development of the
brain in pleasingly accessible ways. He describes three clear phases.
From six million to four and a half million years ago, human
beings had a smaller brain, about a third of its size today, which was
capable only of displaying limited intelligence. It could take simple
decisions according to simple rules, for example about food, shelter,
and survival.
In the second period, from four and a half million to about
100,000 years ago, much more specific kinds of intelligent activity
developed. The beginning of language during this period is an obvi-
ous example.

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