The age of peak intelligence.

[Camoradi]

FN2TypeR said:

Your willingness to vote for a political party or movement that the OP agrees with, I think.

Vote the way he agrees with - clever Eric

Vote the way he disagrees with - bad stupid Eric

Good spot. That sneaky BogGhost thought he'd sneaked that one right past us, the cunning fox!

[LimaDelta]

I don't really believe people become more right wing as they age, but society is moving left with each generation. Our racist and homophobic old men of today probably felt exactly the same when 20-somethings, it's just that those opinions were more 'normal' fifty-odd years ago.

As to a correlation between intelligence and left/right leaning political tendencies, I find the idea laughable. Sure more lefties are drawn to academia, but is that because they are smarter, or just feel more comfortable with that lifestyle? Formal education ≇ intelligence.

[Foliage]

I fancy putting a Hitchhikers quote in this thread but which one? their are so many and I so little care that I cant be bothered figuring out which is most apt.

"One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behaviour. If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months' consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favour of a new one. If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical."

[Digga]

jurbie said:

Digga said:

instein was an undoubted intellectual colossus, a man of tremendous vision and talent, but he was not an expert of everything. Logical fallacy.

I read an interesting article the other day, which de-bunked the idea of linking genius with precocity. It looked at artists and the age they were went they painted their best painting or wrote their best poetry and the idea of youthful genius rarely holds. Picasso was a notable exception.

Also Mozart.

Music is interesting because on the face of it it appears that most musicians do there best work when they are younger.

That's very subjective though; the issue with music is that once a composer, artist or band create 'their' sound, they get a following, for many of whom "the old stuff is always the greatest". In a way, musicians are cursed - the nostalgia and attachment that fans develop for music, both the art in and of itself and also for it being evocative of times, places, people and so on, makes it tough to maintain satisfaction.

[turbobloke]

FN2TypeR said:

Eric Mc said:

I repeat - define intelligence.

Your willingness to vote for a political party or movement that the OP agrees with, I think.

Vote the way he agrees with - clever Eric

Vote the way he disagrees with - bad stupid Eric

[Mark Benson]

MarshPhantom said:

Seems to a fairly widespread belief that your at your smartest before your 30, Einstein himself said the same.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/mental-peak-age_...

Intelligent people possibly do their best work unencumbered by experience and the young are more likely to look outside the norms of their field.

MarshPhantom said:

Also fairly common knowledge that young people vote more Left Wing. Even The Torygraph agrees.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/108...

The nonsense the left comes out with about 'equality' is easier to sell to naive people with less experience of the world.

MarshPhantom said:

And that older people become more right wing.
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mr-personality/201410...

As people gain more experience of life and earn more they realise that hard work and enterprise should be rewarded.

[FredClogs]

I've got the day off work today, got a speed awareness course this afternoon and not.much to do this morning except re seal the kids bath... So I'm watching Jeremy Kyle. Both young and old people appear to be terminally stupid. Idiocracy reigns.

[Digga]

Mark Benson said:

As people gain more experience of life and earn more they realise that hard work and enterprise should be rewarded.

That and, eventually, people finally get to meet someone who actually remembers what it was like living under communist rule in a formerly communist country and they disabuse them of their (red) rose-tinted spectacles.

[paulrockliffe]

scherzkeks said:

jurbie said:

Also Mozart.

Music is interesting because on the face of it it appears that most musicians do there best work when they are younger.

I think that has more to do with motivation.

Maybe, coupled with that the peak should be looked at in the context of when they started. Do musicians tend to start learning at a younger age than mathematicians for example? I'd think so, especially as you don't really learn any mathematical concept until you're 4 or 5, but music you hear from birth.

Interesting topic, but I think we can all see empirically that we should listen to experience rather than youth, generally anyway. Good conclusions aren't normally the product of brain power alone.

[spyder dryver]

I preferred MarshPhantom's earlier work.

[Digga]

spyder dryver said:

I preferred MarshPhantom's earlier work.

[FN2TypeR]

FredClogs said:

I've got the day off work today, got a speed awareness course this afternoon and not.much to do this morning except re seal the kids bath... So I'm watching Jeremy Kyle. Both young and old people appear to be terminally stupid. Idiocracy reigns.

A brilliant way to perk yourself up if you are ever feeling down and out (Jezza K, not DIY).

[IanJ9375]

If we are talking pure intelligence then it's peak is around 18yrs old (IQ tests tend to compensate for age beyond this point)

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-the-age-you-re...

[Digga]

IanJ9375 said:

If we are talking pure intelligence then it's peak is around 18yrs old (IQ tests tend to compensate for age beyond this point)

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-the-age-you-re...

As far as wisdom goes, I knew proper fk-all when I was 18, not too much more by 21 and then just about, in terms of intellect and common sense, was able to find my own arse with both hands by 30. Was fun though.

[iphonedyou]

La Liga said:

It tells us you noticed you were close to not having a topic on page 1 of NP&E.

This is all I took from it. He now has three.

Bizarre.

[Murph7355]

MarshPhantom said:

Ask Einstein.

Define what intelligence is first so we know that we're asking the right person...

[FredClogs]

Digga said:

IanJ9375 said:

If we are talking pure intelligence then it's peak is around 18yrs old (IQ tests tend to compensate for age beyond this point)

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-the-age-you-re...

As far as wisdom goes, I knew proper fk-all when I was 18, not too much more by 21 and then just about, in terms of intellect and common sense, was able to find my own arse with both hands by 30. Was fun though.

Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting one in a fruit salad.

[IanJ9375]

FredClogs said:

Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting one in a fruit salad.

Yep lol

[drainbrain]

Eric Mc said:

I repeat - define intelligence.

The ability to adapt to the environment.

[Yipper]

Physical intelligence = peaks at 16 to 32.
Creative intelligence = peaks at 18 to 42.
Intellectual intelligence = peaks at 18 to 48.

As a broad rule, if you have not "made it" by 40, you probably never will.