The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions

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A team’s ability to reason as one unit. Although it is very loosely connected to IQ, factors such as the social sensitivity of the team’s members seem to be far more important. Robson expresses mixed feelings about intuition. On the one hand, in the appendix, he describes 'cognitive miserliness' as a tendency to base our decision- making on intuition rather than analysis. While on the other hand he devotes the chapter titled 'Your Emotional Compass' to discussing how one sort of valuable intuition can be founded on finely tuned emotional sensitivity.

Starting with a look at the Intelligence Quotient (IQ), the author then introduces the reader to other measures of understanding such as an Emotional and Wisdom Quotient. Next the author ruminates on the important concepts of curiosity and growth mindset and how these relate to brain power. The author also explains the different forms of memory and how these affect overall intelligence. In this step, you make your decision. You can now choose more effectively because you’ve scanned and organized three important pieces of information: the positives, the negatives, and the interesting. Deliberately considering the worst-case scenario, and all the factors that may have contributed towards it, before making a decision. This is one of the most well-established ‘de-biasing’ strategies.”So far, attention has been devoted to individuals. However, man is a social animal and much that is important depends on teamwork and in the collective output of large organisations. The unexpected failure of teams once their proportion of ‘star’ players reaches a certain threshold. See, for instance, the England football team in the Euro 2016 tournament.” The downside of many of these books is that while the subject is extremely interesting, the text often has the ability to put me to sleep. Fortunately, Mr. Robson is an able author and keeps the discussion on individual topics short and memorable with current anecdotes adding spice to the story. I remind myself to just consider the Plus points, consider the Minus points, and find the Interesting points.

We can improve our rational thinking skills by practicing techniques such as mindfulness and meditation. Given these findings, many cognitive scientists divide our thinking into two categories: “system 1,” intuitive, automatic, “fast thinking” that may be prey to unconscious biases; and “system 2,” “slow,” more analytical, deliberative thinking. According to this view—called dual- process theory—many of our irrational decisions come when we rely too heavily on system 1, allowing those biases to muddy our judgment. Fixed mindset involves the belief that our abilities and intelligence are fixed and cannot be changed. The mismatch between intelligence and rationality, as seen in the life story of Arthur Conan Doyle. This may be caused by cognitive miserliness or contaminated mindware. I’m not even going to begin discussing why you might want to start off here by defining ‘intelligence’ – this book covers many of the problems with that more than adequately. Rather, I want to chat about the ‘trap’ part of the title. In a lot of ways this book is a rehash of stuff which is perhaps better covered in books like Mistakes Were Made (But not by me) or Sway – there were endless books of this kind printed about a decade ago, and I would still recommend most of them. The ‘trap’ part of this is the bit where we use our intelligence to work against what might otherwise be our better judgement. The examples given in the book include lots of scientists who become convinced of some crazy nonsense about HIV-AIDS or vaccinations or alien abductions – and then, once they are so convinced, no amount of evidence is enough to convince them otherwise. The point mad

For teamwork, in chapter 9 Robson considers a variety of work and sport situations. He cites studies indicating that collective intelligence is only moderately related to average IQ. One of the strongest predictors of group success seems related to the social sensitivity of the team members, and the most destructive dynamic is when team members compete against each other instead of working together. In team sports there seems an optimum proportion of 'star' players. Graphs are shown of success in football and in basketball plotted against the percentage of top talent in the team. Robson notes, from Galansky's analysis of over 5000 Himalayan expeditions, that teams likely to have had a hierarchical style of leadership were more likely to reach the summit but were also more likely to lose team members in the attempt. For selecting an ideal team Robson concludes that there should be less emphasis on outstanding individual abilities and more attention to interpersonal skills that enhance the team's functioning. Although some executives feel that personal humility undermines their authority, Robson argues that employees under a humble leader are more likely to share information and work together. Consider alternatives. Make a habit of considering other possibilities by frequently asking: What else might this be? Do not be hesitant to consult with colleagues when time permits. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes or ears can detect something that you don’t. Several different learning styles are identified, visual, auditory etc. We see five levels of learning and mastery of a subject or skill, and that qualified people often forget the details they learned over time. Logic puzzles. Ask Why: Take a pause, and think why you’re making the decision that you are about to take. Unpopular belief, but there is no harm in second-guessing yourself. The unfortunate conclusion is that, even if you happen to be rational in general, it’s possible that you may still be prone to flawed reasoning on certain questions that matter most to you. Conan Doyle’s beliefs were certainly of this kind: spiritualism seems to have offered him enormous comfort throughout his life.

Growth mindset” is the belief that our intelligence and abilities can be developed through hard work, dedication and persistence. Grit is the combination of passion and perseverance that allows us to overcome obstacles and achieve our goals. The writing is very easy to follow and the pace on how the book is presented makes a lot of sense - it is divided into four parts. The first explains the downsides of intelligence on how a high IQ, education and expertise can fuel stupidity. The second part goes over how to escape the intelligence trap going over reasoning and decision making. Third part presents how wisdom can improve memory and principles of deep learning, and finally the last part presents how teams and organizations could avoid disasters and how to create a dream team for success. IMO, intelligence trap relies in very intense usage of brain's "RAM", so due to that there may be some dumb mistakes, but still we don't have the comparisons with "low RAM intensity people", who often act without thinking too much. I suspect, later people make much more so called "dumb mistakes".And so they returned to the Ambassador Hotel, closed the curtains, and waited for inspiration to strike. Jean sat in a kind of trance with a pencil in one hand as the men sat by and watched. Part 4 explores the reasons why talented groups can act stupidly — from the failings of the England football team to the crises of huge organisations like BP, Nokia, and NASA.

Part 3 turns to the science of learning and memory. Despite their brain power, intelligent people sometimes struggle to learn well, reaching a plateau in their abilities that fails to reflect their potential. EBW can help to break that vicious cycle by offering three rules for deep learning — rules that explain why East Asian education systems are so successful. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand emotions in ourselves and others.

The Intelligence Trap by David Robson is a great read that sheds light on many cognitive biases we all have; David shares some great strategies for identifying them and some insights on working on them. It is not what we know that gets us into trouble; it is what we think we know for sure that ain’t so. The author gives various examples of how brilliant people make seemingly stupid mistakes. The logic of the two statements is exactly the same—but it is far easier to notice the flaw in the reasoning when the conclusion clashes with your existing knowledge. In the first example, however, you have to put aside your preconceptions and think, carefully and critically, about the specific statements at hand—to avoid thinking that the argument is right just because the conclusion makes sense with what you already know. Tiedetoimittaja David Robsonin Älykkyysloukku on kultakaivos! Hän aloittaa esittelemällä tunnettuja huippuälykkäitä ihmisiä, jotka ovat intoutuneet uskomaan mitä mielettömimpiin salaliittoihin ja humpuukiin. Ammattiurallaan he ovat saavuttaneet huikeita tuloksia, mutta harkinta ja arviointikyky eivät ole kantaneet siviiliin asti. Harva meistä on huippuälykäs, mutta samat päättelyn sudenkuopat odottavat meitä kaikkia. Yksilöiden lisäksi Robson esittelee toimivan tiimin tunnusmerkkejä, ja antaa tässäkin runsaasti esimerkkejä huippuyksilöistä koostuvista tiimeistä niin urheilussa (Englannin maajoukkue), teollisuudessa (Deepwater Horizon) kuin bisneksessä (Nokia..), jotka huikeasta lahjakkuudestaan ja resursseistaan huolimatta epäonnistuvat surkeasti.