Brain Power Types

One of my longer blogs, but intriguing nonetheless…

A marvelous person sent me this article from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=2c9bff2541865fdc&ex=1203570000

It got me thinking…One of my eccentricities is people-watching. For example, I can spend hours sitting at the food court in a mall—or any other place—just watching people. In all my time people-watching and observing, and spurred on by this article, it occurred to me that for years I have been classifying people based on what I call “brain power”. Hey, it’s what scientists love to do: classify things!

I categorize brain power into six types: Intelligent, Smart, Clever, Ingenious, Unaware, and Naïve. Now, by “brain power”, I mean the way people attain and use knowledge.

In a thesaurus, intelligent & smart are synonyms; so are clever & ingenious and unaware & naïve, respectively. But when I say someone is “smart”, I mean something different that “intelligent”. And likewise for all of my BPTs (brain power types). And it’s much more than semantics, I think…Here’s what I mean:

Intelligent: good at book learning; reading comprehension; able to remember things (even if their information was gleaned from reading some article in the newspaper 20 years ago)—would read about how electricity works rather than sticking their finger in an electrical outlet to discover the shocking experience.

Smart: uses common sense; inherently knows what to avoid; always makes the “right” decision—would never be caught sticking their finger in an electrical outlet because they’ve heard stories...

Clever: figures out ways around things; likes to bend rules; manipulates things—would get someone else to stick their finger in the electrical outlet to see what happens (even though they probably already know…)

Ingenious: resourceful; uses practical means to accomplish endeavors; devises inventive ways for discovering something—would build some machine that would test the electrical output in the electrical socket or create a model of how electrical output might be measured to see how much danger there was.

Unaware: uninformed about (certain) knowledge; ignorant in (certain) areas; takes (certain) things for granted—expects the alarm clock to always work because it’s “plugged in” and “that means there’s electricity”!

Naïve: inexperienced; innocent; blissfully oblivious—never realizes where the electrical outlets are in the first place (until they need to use them…then they have to search for them)!

Now, I do believe that everyone could exhibit each of the BPTs depending on the situation. However, I also believe that some people choose otherwise. And that’s fine! Each is different…neither good nor bad…just different. It’s merely a categorization based on my observations of (lots of) people.

Popular posts from this blog

Malls of West Amman

Image
Probably my favorite mall feature: The animatronic T-Rex in Galleria Mall at  Christmastime. Notice Santa with pterodactyls. A bustling metropolitan area with more than 4 million people, Amman has lots of things to keep a Travelist busy. There are ancient ruins, museums, Arab souks, architecture, restaurants of all kinds (and price-ranges)...and the list continues. There are also no fewer than a dozen universities scattered throughout the city limits. And Amman keeps expanding. The city changes so fast that Google Maps can’t keep up with it. For example, where last month there was no road, unexpectedly there is one now, or where there were just a few pilings for a bridge last month, suddenly there is a new bridge. Their construction crews certainly work fast here! For some reason, malls have always fascinated me. It may be that I grew up without them, only visiting them around Christmastime with my parents until I was in college and lived in “The City”. Or it may...
Read more

Rock Art in Jordan's Eastern Desert

Image
Dixie in her natural habitat: outdoors. Here in Southern Utah, 1993 When I was a little kid, Dixie (my mom) was into Native American (Indian) things. Actually, she was always interested in them. And because she was, and we spent a lot of time together, I became interested in Indian things too. We spent time discussing ancient native cultures, her (some would say wild) theories about them, and the more spiritual/mystical aspects often tied to the rich cultural heritage. She also liked “glyphs”, as she called them, and I soon became aware that these glyphs – rock art – were found in almost every culture around the world. Fast forward to my PhD work where, by luck really, I ended up studying rock art (though not in the traditional archeological sense) – and in the Desert Southwest US, no less. I learned there are four main types of rock art: petroglyphs (those carved or pecked into the rock), pictographs (paintings on rocks), intaglios (scraping away of a surface to reveal ligh...
Read more

Shobak

Image
After pretty much traversing Jordan’s width and breadth – from Aqaba in the south to five miles from the Syrian border in the north and the Dead Sea in the west to As-Safawi in the east – there’s one place we keep returning to again and again: Shobak (sometimes spelled Shabak or Shawbak). Yes, the Dead Sea Highway is quite unique, the Eastern Desert magical, and Wadi Rum vast. But Shobak is...well...different. Kind of a high plains desert that captures all my favorite components of each major physiographic province in Jordan.  Shobak is about a two-hour drive from Amman, along the Desert Highway and en route to Petra. The town itself is best known for its castle . Built along the caravan/pilgrimage route between the Gulf of Aqaba and Syria by King Baldwin I in 1115 AD, it stood for several decades and repelled Saladin’s forces for two years later in that century. It’s also out of the way – you can’t see it from any main by-pass road as you can with other castles like Karak, Az...
Read more