📘 Part 3: Talents & Being Smart

This episode's vocabulary

Well-rounded (adjective) – Having a personality that is fully developed in all aspects; knowledgeable in a variety of subjects. → She is well-rounded, so she knows a lot of things from different spheres.

Keep things ticking over (idiom) – To make something continue working or functioning at a basic level. → We need people in construction to keep things ticking over.

Get fixated on (phrasal verb) – To become obsessively focused on one specific thing. → Others get fixated on one specific thing to the exclusion of everything else.

Requisite (adjective) – Made necessary by particular circumstances or regulations. → You need to invest the requisite amount of time in doing something to become good at it.

Hectic (adjective) – Full of incessant or frantic activity. → Children are given a space away from an otherwise hectic life to sit down and learn.

Like-minded (adjective) – Having similar tastes, opinions, or interests. → They get exposed to like-minded people who can help them understand and interpret things.

Realize one's full potential (phrase) – To achieve everything one is capable of. → We can help children in realizing their full potential by sending them to school.

Replicate (verb) – To make an exact copy of; reproduce. → Through listening, you can come to understand and perhaps replicate the process too.

Innate (adjective) – Inborn; natural. → It's a question of innate intelligence, the one we are born with, versus acquired intelligence.

Acquired (adjective) – Gained or developed through experience, not inherited. → Acquired intelligence is the one that we develop by learning, studying and effort.

Infinite potential (noun phrase) – Limitless capacity to develop or succeed. → You could be born with infinite potential, but your environment matters.

Upbringing (noun) – The treatment and instruction received by a child from their parents throughout their childhood. → It depends on your education and upbringing.

Cognitive functions (noun phrase) – Mental processes that include attention, memory, and problem-solving. → A healthy diet rich in nutrients supports cognitive functions.

Doomscrolling (verb) – The act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of negative news. → Doomscrolling lowers your IQ.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Why does modern society need talents of all kinds?

Rory: Well, I imagine because we have a million different roles for people to fill these days, don't we? We need people on social media, in the government, in education, and out working in the streets and in construction to keep things ticking over. If we didn't have people who were good at all these sorts of things, it could get pretty messy or at least inefficient.

Maria: Why are some people well-rounded and others only good at one thing?

Rory: I think it's a question of focus. Some people spread their attention over a variety of areas. Whether that's due to family values or just their own personal interest is irrelevant. That's what they do. While others get fixated on one specific thing to the exclusion of everything and become amazing in that one area. For someone like Bill Gates, they can get very lucky, and that makes them very wealthy indeed, so it encourages them to keep going.

Maria: How can people become multi-talented?

Rory: I imagine just by investing the time in studying different things. I can't think of any other way. You need to invest the requisite amount of time in doing something to become good at it. That's it, basically. If there are other ways, I can't think of them right now.

Maria: How do children become smart at school?

Rory: Oh, all kinds of ways. I think the most obvious would be learning things like facts and principles and how they can be applied to different subject areas. But it could also be through being given a place and space away from an otherwise hectic life to sit down and sort their heads out. In the same way, the provision of school meals in some countries has had a direct positive effect on IQ. Oh, and they get exposed to like-minded people who can help them understand and interpret things, which is very useful for becoming smarter.

Maria: Do you think children are born smart or they learn to become smart?

Rory: I'm not sure it's one or the other really. You're probably born with a certain capacity to learn, and over the course of your life, this expands in various ways to fit your needs in an environment that enables that. I mean, you could be born with infinite potential, but if you're raised in a tiny box, you're not going to be able to do much with it, are you?

Maria: How can we help children in realizing their full potential?

Rory: Well, just through the things that we do already. So, we send children to school, which is this place that creates opportunities for them to do that. And they work with teachers who ideally encourage them to try different things that helps them identify what they're good at. And if not, the teachers can help identify this. So a lot of that's very school-based. And then, of course, they don't just go to school, they also go home. So the parents can play a part in this as well. They notice the things that their children are good at or they need help with in order to progress further. So a lot of this is about noticing things, really.

Maria: What's the best way to learn problem-solving skills?

Rory: I'm tempted to say by solving problems. But I suppose a more in-depth answer would be to, well, you could do it, of course, you could solve different problems or puzzles, for example, but you can also observe people in the process of doing that. Like you listen to the language that masters in problem solving use when they're dealing with these kinds of subjects. And through that, you can come to understand and perhaps replicate the process too. There's also a great deal to be said from looking at terrible examples of problem solving to see what you definitely should not do and that way you can become more efficient as well.

Discussion

Maria: So, dear listener, intelligence is the key topic. So being smart or intelligence. You can read an interesting article like born smart or built smart, a usual question. Are people born smart or do they develop this intelligence, IQ over the years?

Rory: Or just spend 12 years of your life teaching and then you will quickly discover how that happens.

Maria: So, our society needs different talents, talented people or gifted people.

Rory: A gift.

Maria: Yeah. A gift of, I don't know, working with people, a gifted doctor.

Rory: Gift for languages.

Maria: A gift for languages. Yeah. And we need people in different spheres, in the government, in education, in construction. That's why we need all different talents. We can use the second conditional, if we didn't have talented people, life would be messy. Life would be inefficient, not effective. If we didn't have people with talents, it would be very difficult to live. Well-rounded people, well-rounded is a good adjective which means...

Rory: Yeah, people that can do a variety of things reasonably well. Can also describe well-balanced people who are emotionally stable.

Maria: Yeah, or like well-rounded involving or having experience in different areas, activities. She is well-rounded, so she knows a lot of things from different spheres. Knowledge from different areas. I have a well-rounded education. Education about different spheres of life. And a well-rounded person knows different information from different spheres. So well-rounded people or people who are good at one thing. For example, a writer only writes books, right? But another person is a writer, a painter, they also can make clothes, drive trucks. So they are good at different things. And Rory thinks that it's a question of focus. So if you focus on one thing, you become good at one thing. If you focus, spread your attention, if you spread your attention over different areas, for example, three areas, then you are good at these three areas.

Rory: Well, you might be good at them but you won't be as good as someone that focused their attention.

Maria: Yeah. Or some people get fixated on one specific thing. So get fixated on or focus on one specific thing. And they become amazing in that one area. So it's not something bad, but well, yeah. And then you can give an example. For example, Bill Gates. So Bill Gates kind of focused on one thing. Or he what he spread his attention over a variety of areas.

Rory: Well, he focused a lot on computer science. Although it's important to point out that Bill Gates is also the recipient of lots of privileges as well. He had a family that encouraged him to do that and access to computer labs. Not everybody has that.

Maria: But he became amazing in one particular area.

Rory: You know what he didn't become amazing at? Being a good person. I can't go into the podcast 'cause I've just accused Bill Gates of being

Maria: Okay. Smart or intelligent. Children become smart or intelligent at school, how does this happen? Wow. Lots of ways. They learn different facts. They learn different skills in different subject areas. So they study subjects, like biology, mathematics, and then they become intelligent.

Rory: Well, they learn how to do things, and then they remember it, ideally, and they develop it and become more consistent.

Maria: And they are in a specific place at school and they are given time just for learning away from hectic life. Hectic life, messy life, crazy life. So they just go to one place to learn. So they focus their attention on learning. Hectic, like full of activity. For example, a hectic schedule. Actually it's C1 word, so we like this word. Usually we say, I've got a hectic schedule, timetable, I've got a hectic life. So children become intelligent through learning plus food. Yeah, school meals can contribute to the IQ levels. IQ stands for what?

Rory: Intelligence quotient. But it's just a way of measuring how clever someone is.

Maria: Yeah. So you can say children's intelligence or children's IQ. And yeah, our intelligence could depend on the food we consume because actually we are the food that we eat. Okay? So it does play a big part.

Rory: I think so. I mean, how clever can you be if you're starving?

Maria: Exactly. Or how clever can you be if you just eat only bread, for example.

Rory: Or if you eat eggs from the microwave.

Maria: Right, dear listener, you may not know this.

Rory: If you are new to the podcast, then you will not know this.

Maria: Yeah, if you are new to the podcast, it's fine. I'm just going to tell you a story. Rory, our Rory, this Rory, used to microwave his eggs. So he would take eggs, eggs, usual eggs, you know, yum, yum. He would put them into a microwave oven. Oh, my, it's just terrible. And then he would cook eggs in a microwave. Luckily, our super listeners wrote to Rory.

Rory: And bullied him into not doing it anymore.

Maria: No, no, no, no. Because Rory didn't believe me. I told him, just stop, stop, you can't do this to eggs. Rory didn't believe me, but after our super listeners attacked Rory on Instagram, he stopped doing this. Thank you, dear listener, if you were the one who did that. Yes, thank you. Okay, I'm Googling if food contributes to IQ.

Rory: Yes, of course it does.

Maria: A healthy diet rich in nutrients, nutrients like fiber, protein, supports cognitive functions. Cognitive, like thinking functions. With studies, a lot of studies, of course, we believe all the studies. So they show that diets high in greens, fatty fish, nuts, berries can improve cognitive outcomes. And potentially boost childhood IQ. So as a child, if you eat fish, nuts, berries, greens, leafy greens, all these salads. So they could boost a child's IQ by up to two points. Not much.

Rory: There you go, see.

Maria: But processed foods like fast food, sugar, they can lower IQ in children. That's why dear listener, Rory talked about meals at school. So if children stick to fast food, pizza, sugar, they are not getting smart.

Rory: Then they could grow up to be like me. How terrible that would be.

Maria: Yeah, I actually, I ate a lot of sugar and bread at school too, so we didn't have any healthy meals. Oh, no, no, no, I'm lying, I'm lying. We did have porridge and dinners were pretty well, well okay. And children get exposed to other children who might be smarter than them. So they get exposed to, they talk to, they are surrounded by like-minded people. People who are like them. Or even more intelligent than them. And it's helpful to be surrounded by more intelligent people for you to develop. Then a classical question, are people born smart or they become smart? So it's a question about nurture versus nature. Nature like how we are born, nurture is education. Okay, so genetics or our education. We are smart because of our genetics, because of our parents or we are smart because we develop our intelligence through life. Ooh, what do you think? Innate intelligence, the one we are born with or acquired intelligence, the one that we develop by learning, studying and effort.

Rory: I think it's both.

Maria: It's both, yeah. Yeah. So, you can say we can't choose here. You learn over the course of your life. So learning expands your intelligence. And then you are born with infinite potential.

Rory: Well, maybe.

Maria: Infinite. Yes, endless potential. Ooh, very positive. Infinite, dear listener, it's C2. Wow, without, yeah, it is, without limits. So endless. And we can say that a person has an infinite potential. Our universe is theoretically infinite. No limits. An infinite number of possibilities, unlimited number. And any, every person is born with infinite potential. Then it depends on your education, upbringing. Upbringing, how parents raise you. Careful, dear listener, parents raise you. Okay? So they bring you up, parents, raise you. For example, he was raised by his grandparents, by his grandma and grandfather. Right, dear listener. So I'm looking at this article from from psychology today. Actually a very good, actually a very good journal, magazine, psychologytoday.com. And the article is called "intelligence, born smart or built smart, the truth about intelligence". So what they're saying is something about science, something about what we do to lower our IQ. So if we eat fast food, it lowers our IQ.

Rory: Probably if we drink alcohol.

Maria: Ooh.

Rory: Oh yeah, drink, we drink.

Maria: We doomscroll. Doomscrolling lowers your IQ. Sleeping poorly also lowers your IQ.

Rory: So get sleep, get off your phone.

Maria: Exactly, see? So the habits that help us make the habits that help the habits that make you smarter. So what are they, dear listener? Yeah, they're mentioning some research. Chu-chu-chu, chu-chu. What's some exercise training? Okay. So, some training, walking, memorizing lists. There we go.

Rory: Oh yeah, that would be good for your memory.

Maria: Ah, no, no, no. We we don't get smart by sitting still or memorizing lists. No. We get smart by exploring the world, spotting patterns, making predictions. Ooh.

Rory: Very nice. Okay, so lots of different things here.

Maria: Okay, experimenting, trying out something new. Mm. Have you ever taken an IQ test, Rory?

Rory: Oh, maybe decades ago, probably. They used to make you do it in work, but I think that's illegal now. I don't think you can fire someone because they're stupid.

Maria: You fail, you've just failed your IQ test, sorry, goodbye. So, dear listener, remember that from this article, effective intelligence isn't fixed. So it changes over the years. It could get lower or you can get more intelligent. You see, so it changes. It's not fixed.

Rory: That means we always have to work on it.

Maria: Yeah, we can get smarter at any point in our life, even if a person is 90 years old. Smart people read a lot.

Rory: Oh, that's good. I read a lot. That's quite reassuring.

Maria: Oh, yeah. And children actually at school, they tend to read a lot. There we go. That's how they become smart by reading. There we go. And eating fiber, nuts and berries. Now you know, dear listener.

Rory: Oh, perfect. I can do that.

Maria: Hopefully, you'll have a lot of delicious nuts, berries, fresh berries, yum, yum, yum.

Rory: I have nuts. There's enough nuts on this podcast.

Maria: Thank you very much for listening. Bye.

Rory: Bye.