08/07/2025

The Truth about Intelligence and Effort

Sleep, curiosity and movement are cognitive superchargers

One of the more vicious debates that has raged in psychology for more than a century is this: What exactly is intelligence, and where does it come from?

Despite decades of symposia, meta-analyses, and ideological campaigns pitted against each other, we are still no closer to fully unpacking Spearman's g (a measure of general intelligence) or even agreeing on whether it’s a meaningful construct to begin with.

The truth I have to share isn't a breakthrough that finally cracks the code. Instead, it's a deeper, more transformative truth about IQ itself: Where intelligence comes from doesn't matter nearly as much as what we do with the one we've got. And once we start deploying the concept of "effective IQ," it turns out we can do a lot more than simply philosophize about its origins.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Psychology Today.