Treating “intelligence” as a synonym for “training” is a more effective and positive approach than thinking certain people have some from-birth advantage over others.
So many people walk around thinking they’re stupid when they’re not. They just were not trained well in things society considers the core competencies of smart people (math, literature, physics, etc)
You can read perspectives on intelligence from people who’ve won the Putnam and they convey that they ‘just’ put in a crazy amount of work training in competitive mathematics. And even before they were deliberately training for the Putnam, they were raised in an environment that trained them for mathematical competency.
Of course there is likely a genetic and/or physical component to intelligence, but the major aspect of being smart is about wealth and educational inequality.
Of course there is likely a genetic and/or physical component to intelligence, but the major aspect of being smart is about wealth and educational inequality.