Are you born smart, or is it a choice?

[Trenton Shamblin]

Hello, Nerdfighteria! I'm wondering what you all think of this. Do you think you're born smart? Is it something natural, or do you have to choose? Are you born a jock or a Nerdfighter? can you say "Hey, I wanna be a nerd." and poof, you are one? I'm sure there will be plenty of arguments for both sides.

Thannks! Note, DFTBA=Don't Forget the Baby Apocalypse!!

[Latch33570]

Born that way. That and the fact that the planet is mtoo overcrowded is why I,m ok with eugenics. Controled evolution.

[Kelly Donovan]

You are simplifying the concept if 'smart' and 'smartness,' methinks.

 

Putting specific definitions on smart, intelligent and capacity to learn (+ applying strict distinctions to those) is useless and kind of impossible to me. Those are definitely interdependent and I think the intersectionality of those things is a pretty interesting thing to talk about.

 

[Lauren]

No. I think you grow up you be smart.

I think it has to do with how much you want to learn, which depends on how you were taught things when you were younger, what intrests you, a lot of things.

[Jackalope Joe D'Antonio]

Up bringing is key, as well is body structure. Now I can support these two theses. My parents took me to museums instead of football games, bought me a gameboy not a basketball, and used sports as an activity i had to opt into rather than something i had to do. Winning was always an option but losing was always accepted. I was trained from a young age to respect knowledge and the pursuit of knowledge rather than athletic merit. This made me a nerd today. There is nothing wrong with being a jock, but I find the nerd life very fufilling.  Now for body structure. I think that plays a key role. If you have the muscle to get what you want than you will be more apt to use brute force in all issues. For muscular people the best way to get from point a to point b is through. Then smaller people who can't muscle there way through life handle problems by trying to get around them rather than pushing through them. This is just a metaphor, not saying nerds try to weasle out of problems. Now there are always exeptions to both rules. The football star who becomes a scientist, the stage kid who becomes a star baseball player. But normally people follow the patterns i have stated.

[Alex]

Maybe it is more of a subconscious thing. Where you get all the knowledge that your subconscious feels you need, you stop retaining things that your subconscious values as important.

[Gabriel Battle-Moose Montefiasco]

Intelligence, as in the sheer processing power and speed of your brain, is genetic. It's a function of human chemistry dependent for a large part on the genes we get, and for a smaller but not insignificant part on how we form in the womb. That's all there is to say on that matter.

On its own, though, it's not really that important. Nor are most unchangeable hereditary traits we have. What's far more important is what we choose do with them, and what our environment allows us to do. Some things you might choose to do with your processing power may be easier than others, dependent on what kind of brain you have. But nothing in ourselves is insurmountable, or otherwise we are no different from beasts.

 

You can be, genetically, a complete dunce, and still do well in school and succeed in a highly intellectual field. Certainly, it may be harder for you than for someone who is able to make connections and form memories faster. But we have literally a whole lifetime to aspire to our goals. And if we don't achieve them in that time, then hopefully we gave it the best we had, had fun along the way, and maybe even inspired someone else to strive for something they might not reach. Everyone has the potential to do anything, and the only real way to fail is to never try to do what you want to do.

 

So um, yeah *steps down from soapbox*.