Magical Intellect

"Why are you so smart?" I've heard people ask.  Time and again, pepole demand to know the secret of beign smart.  What makes an individual intellegent?  Some people think some are born smart.  Others say its hard work and dedication to learning.  But everywhere I go, a common theme among those that ask the question, with wonder and mystery in their voices, is that being exceptionally intellegent is like magic.  they treat it as an otherworldy power.  As if there is a machine that hooks up to your brain and downloads information to it.  To see and think beyond the given front, extrapolate extra information and tease out hidden implications out of data is something akin to a paranormal feat. 

You can hear the same tone of voice in spectators at a magic show, or people watching for UFO's.  Intellegence is alien to these people.  Why is it that the process of becoming smart is seemingly linked to the unknowable or unacheivable?  I have encountered people with mental abilities that I simply don't have, musicians, sports fans, chess players.  All these people can do things that are near impossible for me, but it isn't unfathomable that they CAN do them, or how.  They hear, see or think about the world in different ways from myself.  They grew up valuing different kinds of information, filled in gaps in the world using that information in a differenc capacity from me. 

Its a problem of our culture that being smart is anathama.  We all know about the nerds bullied by the jocks, but its more than that.  People are taught that if they aren't smart, that they won't be smart.  The idea that there will always be sopmeone better than you has been perverted to mean something different than originally intended.  It doens't mean not trying, or allowing yourself to be overtaken by other intellectuals.  It means that there will always be someone you can turn to for help, and can help in turn.  That learning is a cooperative experience, and you will always have something to offer. 

And to answer the question that everyone contiually asks.  What makes someone smart?  It isn't genetics, or dilligence, or even books that hold the secret.  Its contiually asking questions.  You have to ask questions to get answers, and with enough parctice, you learn just the right question to ask.  You can shape the problem your trying to solve around what you know, frame the question to yourself in a way that calls on all you know about the world.  The better you become at asking questions, the easier it becomes to answer them, the more you learn.  Its a cycle that is simple to perpetuate within yourself, but difficult to begin.