"I am Switzerland." (Cuatro)

How exactly does one locate an intelligent person? Is it that kid in the back who wears the dorky glasses and never wears a shirt without a pocket protector? On the surface, it may appear so. But to truly understand how to locate an intelligent person, perhaps it would be judicious to define intelligence.

My favorite definition for intelligence is: the capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. That's a complicated definition, you might tell me, and, in some respects, you might be right. Many might say that an intelligent person is someone who knows a lot of facts. Maybe an intelligent person uses a lot of big words or maybe an intelligent person does vector calculus just for fun (I'll give you a cookie if you get that reference). Indeed, one definition of intelligent is: having understanding or knowledge. But to me, intelligence is a bit more than just facts.

To me, an intelligent person may not know a lot of pieces of random trivia, although many intelligent people may. A truly intelligent person might not be able to do long division in his head or use big words solely for the purpose of confusing his or her audience. An intelligent person is someone who has the ability to learn quickly. An intelligent person has a mind that is capable of quick decisions, especially outside of the classroom. Education and intelligence are not the same thing. An educated person might be able to know things in theory, but a truly intelligent person can put theories into practice. It's not about being able to memorize things. It's also about being able to recieve input in the form of facts and use their own reasoning to output something new. Just memorizing things is not thinking, it's regurgitating knowledge.

You can't be intelligent without thinking.