This RSA talk by Dan Hurly is a bit slow (I recommend listening to it while doing something else, rather than watching), but I found the content excellent, well-researched and important.
(The actual talk starts at 1:30 and ends at 27min, the rest is Q&A.)
Here’s why I believe it’s so important:
1. Smartness matters.
Intelligence is often underrated as a geeky and nerdy quality, irrelevant for practical purposes, or even worse, as being a hindrance for emotional and intuitive skills. That’s very wrong: general intelligence is highly related to emotional and social skills, and even to health and longevity.
2. Yes, we can become smarter.
Therefore I think we should make that effort – not just for ourselves, but for the coming generation. Let’s remember that the children who are now in school are the ones that will make decisions for us when we’re old. Let’s give them the best possible chances of becoming smart!
by Ursina Teuscher (PhD), at Teuscher Decision Coaching, Portland OR