our consciousness works, how our behaviour is formed, how we learn and choose a job, how can we be convinced of anything, and how are we programmed? And, most importantly, how can all this be changed? How can we make the secrets of our intelligence become an everyday tool for us, a familiar technology, a proven recipe for a unique process called life? Because life is worth it. With this knowledge, we can finally fill most of our lives with the happiness and prosperity we deserve.
Allow yourself to take the first step on an inspiring journey in which we will discover the immense power of our minds and learn how to use it to build meaningful and fulfilling lives. Join us on our quest to explore the secrets of consciousness, understand how our thoughts and behaviour are shaped, and discover practical tools and techniques for achieving your goals, aspirations, and building a life worth living.
Multiple Intelligences and One Life
How we survived and how much intelligence a person has.
Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing
what he read made him mad. ― George Bernard Shaw
Thanks to what abilities have humans survived on the Earth? Not only have we survived, but our population has reached more than 8 billion individuals and continues to grow. How, lacking claws, fangs, and thick skin, unable to fly or climb trees, have humans taken over the entire world of living beings that inhabit the planet? However, for the sake of justice, it should be noted that the most numerous vertebrates on the planet are chickens, with more than 30 billion of them, solely with the permission and thanks to humans.
The only organ that has helped humans compete for survival is the brain. It turned out to be sharper than fangs and claws, more resourceful, and humans have something to counteract the brute and superior strength and agility of the surrounding mammals – their intelligence. People still wonder: How and why did the transformation of nervous tissue into grey thinking matter happen at the end of evolution? And so far, there is no consensus, just hypotheses.
Perhaps when the most curious of the apes climbed down from the trees and began to walk on two limbs, this freed up their upper limbs. The proponents of the theory of evolution argue that the autonomy of the upper limbs contributed to the ability to engage in active work. Labour, allegedly, made a man out of an ape, as the founders of Marxism also claimed. But today, having free hands does not necessarily contribute to active work, or they are not used in the way intended at the beginning of the journey. All this is a little alarming about the prospects for further human evolution.
There is another hypothesis that walking on two limbs contributed to the increase in blood flow to the brain. Since moving on four legs requires more energy and increased blood flow to them, moving on two legs made it possible to redistribute blood flow more effectively and significantly increase the ability to supply the brain with energy for thinking.
The brain uses an amazing amount of energy for its work, and a constant and sufficient blood flow not only has led to the supply of energy to the brain, but also, accordingly, has delivered more biological building matter, which also contributed to its anatomical development. Ultimately, humans possess the highest brain-to-body weight ratio among mammals. To be fair, it should be noted that the ratio is almost the same in mice, thus the surface area of the cerebral cortex is crucial.
Due to the need for constant energy replenishment, the life of primitive man consisted of endless movements, aimed at finding and supplying the body with calories for both physical activities and mental processes. The surrounding world was full of ill-wishers and competitors. But man did not become an intermediate link in the food chain for the surrounding species. The brain allowed him to create weapons for defence and attack, to subordinate his movement to strategy, to consider circumstances and plan changes, to form up in battle order or to retreat in an organised manner. And not only that.
The term intelligence comes from the Latin language and means understanding. This term refers not only to the general abilities of a person to know and understand, but also to the ability to solve problems, achieve goals, and everything that is currently associated with the effectiveness and success of an individual.
In the process of intelligence research, numerous tests have been developed to assess human intelligence. The most well-known among them is the IQ (intelligence quotient). It includes such abilities as goal setting, planning, developing strategies, learning, and applying abstract concepts. Today, it is obvious that this indicator does not fully describe the capabilities of an individual, let alone their implementation in life. Success in life, just like the scores you receive on the test itself, depends on many other factors. Even on nutrition: in developing countries, the introduction of dietary supplements with iodine helped raise IQ. What can be said for sure is that IQ tests demonstrate the ability to pass these very tests.
Continuing their research, scientists and theorists came to the conclusion that describing just one type of intelligence is not enough to understand the whole picture of the brain’s capabilities. A theory of multiple intelligences, with almost a dozen different kinds of intelligences, has been suggested. Depending on which functional quality is more developed in a person, that type of intelligence dominates the personality. Consequently, the use and development of this particular type of intelligence simplifies the realisation of the individual in the appropriate professional environment.
The founder of this theory is Howard Gardner, who proposed a line of six types of intelligence. Later, this line was expanded. Among the intelligences are: linguistic – an expressed ability to write or speak a language, logical-mathematical – the ability to remember and operate with numbers, musical – the ability to understand, feel and handle rhythms and timbres, visual-spatial – showing the ability to navigate in space, and also naturalistic, kinaesthetic, social, personal. Probably, with the expansion of forms of employment and areas of human activity, we can expect an increase in the number of these types. But, regardless of what domain a person is engaged in, there are some abilities that are necessary every day and on which one’s life and fate really depend.
The first is intelligence itself, scored in IQ: to perceive, understand, remember, reflect, plan, and solve problems.
The second is emotional intelligence (EI), a.k.a. emotional quotient (EQ): the ability to understand and manage your own and other people’s emotions while solving problems.
The third is narrative intelligence (NI): a set of abilities to determine and understand your own and other people’s behaviour, to influence it while solving problems.
Most of the knowledge, research, and literature exists on intelligence and IQ, to a lesser extent – on EQ, and scattered and non-systematic information – on NI. The latter, possibly, because most people benefit from the formula: ‘He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.’
EQ: Who Controls Emotions, Controls the World
Why is emotional intelligence so important for business?
Just as the mode of the rational mind is words, the mode
of the emotions is nonverbal. ― Daniel Goleman
A famous businessman once joked that we use emotional intelligence when, if it is impossible to sell, there is at least an opportunity to seduce. But seriously, the peculiarity of this intelligence lies in the very definition
