The six secrets of intelligence

Reflections
#books
July 17, 2022

I recently read the book “The Six Secrets of Intelligence” written by Craig Adams. I enjoyed the read, and thought I would share some brief remarks.

Raving about Aristotle

The book is characterized by a continuous raving about Aristotle. It also frequently mentions well-known scientific results in behavioral psychology (hello Danny Kahneman) that I seem to be coming across in every second book I read. You know, all the heuristics and biases. At multiple points throughout the book, it made me wonder, who is our modern-day Aristotle? Can it maybe be Daniel Kahneman? Do we even have one?

Behavioral psychology, again

“The Undoing Project” is one of my favorite books ever. I still remember starting reading it on a toilet in Luxemburg after buying it in a local shop. My habit of spending long-duration toilet pauses probably started then and there. My PhD advisor even made a remark about it in his laudatio. Shortly after writing this, Kahneman’s work was also mentioned in the book “The Big Nine” I read, point proven?

What has the impact been of vulgarizing this body of behavioral psychology research? Are the people familiar with the research better decision-makers? I know that part of behavioral research finds that even when people have the required information or knowledge, they tend to ignore or misinterpret it. Maybe the impact is the other way around, in that those people think they understand but therefore do not pay enough attention to acting the most rational way.

The six secrets

Spoiler alert, but these are the six secrets:

    • Deduction
    • Induction
    • Analogy (a sign of genius!)
    • Reality (or “What’s real?”)
    • Meaning (or “What do you mean?”)
    • Evidence (or “What counts as evidence?”)

The main point I took from the book is that fundamentals are fundamental, much like Elon Musk’s leaves of knowledge, attached to higher-level leaves, so it sticks better. Is tech guru Musk then our 21st century Aristotle? I doubt Twitterverse would agree. This core lesson for me was nonetheless a welcomed reiteration, in a world I feel bombarded with a focus on getting practical right away and getting-”good”-very-fast schemes. They are schemes after all: only practice and solid foundations make perfect.