Your Intellect Is Your Least Interesting Trait
And you'll become obsolete if you think it is
I’m not sure exactly when it happened - when smart became so cool - though I think it was probably around the time of my favorite show, Gilmore Girls, which aired in the early 2000s with its Harvard-bound heroine. As a child of the 90s, I can provide reliable testimony that getting good grades and wanting to go to Harvard was definitely not cool. Caring about school - or anything for that matter - was an unattractive show of desperation.
And then something remarkable started to happen: describing yourself as a “nerd” was a sign of achievement, and “geeking out” on something was a flagrant display of intelligence that was no longer teased or admonished.
Young people started talking openly about their collegiate ambitions, and their choice of major became increasingly technical. The smartphone equipped us to get smart fast, which we did arrogantly.
And now, the tragic comedy is that our smarts got us here: at the brink of a world governed by an artificial intelligence that will soon outdo the cheap human variety for which we were such gluttons.
And now, we’re faced with looking at the truth that’s been there all along: intelligence is not your most interesting quality, nor is it unique to you. No one ever had any business saying knowing stuff was their aptitude, but it became a default for those who never took the time to discover their real aptitudes.
As human intelligence has become obsolete, those who cling tightly to their identity as “the smart one” will feel threatened. But you don’t need to if you don’t take some time to become acquainted with your most interesting qualities as a one-of-a-kind individual - one with a ton to offer but limited time on this earth to do so.
So hurry up! Here’s what you can do to pay attention to what you’ve got to give:
Pay attention to what comes easily to you: these moments of flow are NOT universal to everyone, and they may be insights into your unique qualities.
Ask others what activities make you glow: while you may be blind to these, others take note. What do you make look like an effortless dance?
Take an objective aptitude assessment: a non-biased, science-backed assessment like Johnson O’Connor or YouScience can help you see what gifts have been hidden in you all this time.
Alex Ellison runs a college and career guidance practice, Throughline Guidance, which serves clients around the globe. She writes and lectures extensively on the subject of careers and college readiness and has been a featured speaker at SXSWedu and TEDx. She is the author of Go Your Own Way: 7 Student-Centered Paths to the Best College Experience and the creator of the Go Your Own Way Student Archetype Quiz used in schools and by individuals to jump-start their college search. She co-authors the new book Your Hidden Genius: The Science-Backed Strategy to Uncovering and Harnessing Your Innate Talents.