We Overestimate the Importance of Intelligence
In this era of increasingly powerful AI, one question I've been pondering more often is whether we tend to overvalue intelligence.
Several things sparked this line of thought. Firstly, the rapid advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) strikes me. In terms of "intelligence"—reasoning, learning speed, breadth of knowledge—they already far surpass human capabilities. Crucially, this kind of intelligence is accessible to almost everyone. This means we can increasingly delegate tasks requiring cognitive heavy lifting to AI, allowing humans to focus more on the decision-making and strategic layers.
Secondly, my own experience plays a role. I consider myself a person of average intelligence. Back in primary school, it took me a very long time to truly grasp the concept of division. Later, when I started learning JavaScript, understanding callbacks—why functions could be passed as arguments and invoked—was another significant hurdle that took ages to overcome.
Despite these struggles, I've managed to achieve reasonably good outcomes in my career. I often tell people I'm not particularly smart; I just got a head start by beginning to code at 13. My diligence compensated for a lack of natural aptitude – many people could probably surpass my level with just a year of focused study in university. This personal journey has deeply convinced me that reaching a competent level in many technical fields often requires more time and persistence than sheer intellectual horsepower. High intelligence isn't necessarily a prerequisite below a certain threshold.
However, even if time can compensate for gaps in intellect, not everyone manages to persist through that necessary period. This highlights another crucial point: while we might overestimate intelligence, we drastically underestimate the importance of self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy refers to the belief in one's own capability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. It's not an innate trait but is shaped by a complex interplay of factors throughout life: the attitudes of caregivers during upbringing, observations of others (modeling), and personal interactions with the environment, among others.
Faced with the same challenge, someone with low self-efficacy often sees only obstacles and eventually gives up. In contrast, someone with high self-efficacy possesses a strong conviction that they can find a solution. The former might even be intellectually brighter than the latter, but the latter, driven by belief, can persevere and ultimately push past the former.
Especially now, in the age of AI, raw intelligence becomes a gap that's easier to bridge. I believe intelligence has diminishing marginal returns for most people, unless you cross a very high threshold—a realm inhabited by only a tiny fraction of the population. People like me, with average intelligence, form the majority. We progress by standing on the shoulders of giants. The world certainly needs geniuses like Dijkstra, but the rest of us can still benefit immensely from the tools and concepts they create.
This isn't an argument against intelligence (anti-intellectualism). Rather, my point is that there might be a critical threshold. For the vast majority below that threshold, the importance of innate intelligence is often overstated. Why? Because access to computational intelligence (via AI) is becoming democratized and less scarce. What remains scarce, and arguably more crucial, is self-efficacy – the confidence and drive to proactively leverage the available intelligence.
The good news is that self-efficacy can be cultivated. Psychologist Albert Bandura, who pioneered the concept, identified four main sources that influence it:
Mastery Experiences: Building confidence through direct, personal success in accomplishing tasks. Repeated successes strengthen self-efficacy, while failures (especially early on or without effective coping strategies) can undermine it.
- I believe "success" here doesn't necessarily mean monumental achievements, but includes small wins. In my early programming days, successfully writing various small programs provided these crucial mastery experiences, significantly boosting my technical confidence.
Vicarious Experiences / Modeling: Observing people similar to oneself successfully completing a task increases the observer's belief that they too can succeed. Seeing others do it fosters a "Maybe I can do that too" attitude.
- For me, reading biographies of successful individuals, especially tech leaders like Kai-Fu Lee (whose book "Making a World of Difference" was influential), served as powerful modeling during my formative years. This kind of inspirational input cultivated my own aspirations.
- Steve Jobs famously said:
"Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you."
- Jobs tapped into an extreme form of this to build high self-efficacy – essentially deriving confidence by realizing others weren't inherently superior.
Social Persuasion: Receiving verbal encouragement and positive feedback from others can bolster self-efficacy. Conversely, discouraging remarks can diminish it.
- (The original author noted this is often passive, so we won't delve deeper here).
Physiological and Emotional States: How individuals interpret their physical and emotional reactions (like stress or anxiety) when facing a task significantly impacts their self-efficacy. Interpreting nervousness as a sign of inadequacy ("I can't handle this") lowers self-efficacy, whereas reframing it as excitement or readiness for a challenge ("I'm energized for this") might maintain or even enhance it.
- My experiences with public speaking and performing on stage illustrate this perfectly. My first few times giving technical talks and singing in front of crowds, I was incredibly nervous, and my performance suffered greatly. By repeatedly pushing myself to get on stage, I learned that confidence is largely a matter of mindset. I started consciously reframing my state beforehand – telling myself I was a performer with enthusiastic fans, that the audience admired me or loved my singing. This mental shift led to dramatic improvements in my composure and delivery.
- Humans react instinctively to situations, but through conscious effort and deliberate practice, we can learn to manage and shape our responses.
These are just some of my reflections spurred by the unfolding AI revolution. My hope is that they might offer some encouragement, especially to those who, like me, consider themselves people of average intelligence navigating this new landscape.