7 Kinds of Intelligence

In Thomas Armstrong's "Seven Kinds of Smart", he proposes that there are actually seven (with variants, nine) kinds of intelligence that are created in our human minds & bodies: Word smart (Linguistics), Picture smart (art & spatial), Music smart, Body smart (athletic & dance), Logic smart (math and logic), People smart (Interpersonal people skills), and Self smart (inner sight, self-knowledge, self-awareness and seeking).

The idea has critical validity, especially when educating our youth. It astounds me that the usual training and certification for out teachers doesn't include this sort of distinction and knowledge. Well, hopefully, in the 21st Century, it does.

Then there is Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence", which is about understanding, observing, and growing with human emotions. Another fine work, and should be required reading for every family, pre-teen, and teenager.

This morning, my co-star sends me a link to Independant Means, Inc., a company with the purpose of providing young women (well, anyone, actually, "family-centered" as the site says) with modern education (information, tools, and role models) in the domain of finances.

This is a great thing, and is much needed. It also points out how irrelavant our schools have become. (NOTE: I'm pretty down on our public schools system these days. My public school education was pretty poor, and my current teacher friends keep me updated on the status quo - which seems to continue to be poor, despite the good intentions and efforts of many teachers.) Our schools don't really teach much that is relevant to modern living. In fact, to me it appears that our schools don't even teach kids how to learn. There is value in the social tribal, hardening-via-peers and dealing-with-dunderheads that one does learn in the public school system, but it really adds up to less than 20% of what you need to lead a great life and create thriving community.

I have an adorable nephew who is almost three years old, and he has me thinking about ways I can suppliment his public education with the skills, tools, and knowledge (STK) that he'll really need. Spinning from the two books mentioned above, I see a few critical areas of STK. I think if you weave STK together with practice, you get domain 'intelligence'. So, I'm going to call these areas of intelligence.

Financial Intelligence - how to manage your personal money, and how the world's money tools and trade work. Beyond how to balance your checkbook, this would include financial instruments, real estate, banking, the time-value of money and compound interest. Compound interest is a thinly-understood concept these days. Did you know that many, many years ago, we had a different sort of consumer protection? Loans beyond seven years were simply not considered valid. There was also a cap on the maximum interest that could be charged. This is because our forefathers knew the compounding power of money. We understand it today as run-away credit debt and a world-record high rate of bankruptcies, causing distress and broken integrity throughout our society and economic system.

Social & Civic Intelligence - how to behave and interact with groups of people to create thriving trust, trade, and a great place to live.

Emotional & Relationship Intelligence - from friends to lovers to oneself: how to understand feelings, what they mean, how to manage them, and how to effectively communicate, demonstrate, and participate in relationships.

Business Intelligence - how to participate in and create win-win trades and exchanges, as well as how to track your dealings, plan and negotiate, and how to learn/find what you need to know legally and locally to operate a business.

Health Intelligence - skip the guidelines of the food pyramid; having health intelligence means being able to generate your own food pyramid. Being in tune with your body, your health lifestyle, nutrition, cooking, and understanding through experience the flexibility, plasticity, adaptation, healing, growth & care of your own body. This may also extend to health concepts for groups of people, from weekend camping to cities and nations.

Spritual Intelligence - this isn't about any particular religion, rather, it is about learning how to ask questions that led oneself to answers, and how to evaluate those answers for validity and truth in ones own life. This is about the skills, tools, and knowledge to be able to competently spiritually quest for ones entire life.

Systems Intelligence - observing and understanding the interaction and interdependance of components in a system and their effects. Concepts like emergent behaviour, synergy, and system evolution. This is critical for understanding the (huge) problems of modern society as well as understanding the frustrations of your own town.

Hopefully, I'll be able to provide some way for my nephew to first know that these domains of skills, tools, and knowledge exist, and then provide ways for him to gain access to them. And practice them.

A Score of Years in Common

I just returned from the American Institute of Architects 2005 National Conference (Continuing Education Services track) where William Draves, co-author of "Nine Shift: Work, life, and education in the 21st Century" was the keynote speaker. He gave a terrific presentation that was interesting, very "scoping", and hopeful in - let's face it - a decade of turmoil.

The premise of the book is that a comparison of the social, industrial, and thought-trends of 1900-1920 and 2000-2020 reveals astounding parallels. From this analysis, we can identify the nine major shifts that are occuring from 2000-2020 and predict the directions and ways the present turmoil will settle out. It is fascinating and revealing.

While he does identify several major trends and shifts that would be recognized as community building, I see a separate but obvious trend toward community gaining momentum. I've now heard 'regular folks' in several different industries talking about community, and friends and locals are all demonstrating a yearning for thriving, connected communities in many ways.

I met a man this morning who is another techy Internet guy who builds web sites and helps people protect and recover from spyware, malware, and viruses. He and I have each been in the computer/Internet industry for over 25 years. He was also quite excited about building thriving community, and when I mentioned "Personal Exchange Economy", he seemed to know exactly what I was talking about (there are so many ways we can exchange with each that aren't related to money... think about the term 'social capital' for a moment. What social capital do you have? How much social capital does your community have?)

My conclusion is that we tech-Internet guys, who have spent 3,000+ hrs/year behind the computer screens for a decade or two, are so done with the 'me generation', and now we want the 'we generation.' I can say that, because I was a member of the 'me' generation. I lived it, defined it, and preached it. I spent my disposable income to make catering the 'me' generation an economic peak; I trained my generation and those right after in the 'me' lifestyle. Been there, done that, took it to the limit and at maximum velocity.

Now an entire wave of techies (and other folks that lived thru the 90's boom) is right behind me... we are tired of the 'me' factor and are now interested in - no, more than than that! Lustful and desirious of - the 'we' factor. We are hopeful, captivated, and hungry to discover the strengths and powers of groups, communities, and togetherness.

Glad to find all the friends and netheads that I've been emailing, IM'ing, BBS'ing, chatting, and posting in Msg Forums with coming out into the sunshine and real world with me. Great to see you all in person!