So the plumber who reaches up inside of the wall of an old building where he cannot see and he can only feel, and through feeling around the structures in there, feeling the rust, feeling moisture if there’s any, feeling the way the thing is structured — he’s visualizing what’s back there that he can’t see and then bringing a knowledge base to bear on trying to figure out what the problem may be. Think of what a complex set of mental operations are involved in that. Or the hairstylist who is presented with someone who comes in and they have a botched dye job, let’s say. And the stylist — and this woman said this to me when I was watching her work — she said, “The first thing I asked myself is what was that previous stylist trying to accomplish?” So what an interesting question to ask…
And what an interesting problem-solving road that takes her down. Now, those kinds of things are not going to be picked up on an IQ instrument. They’re not structured to get to that stuff. But those are certainly manifestations of intelligence.
Mike Rose, research professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, in conversation with On Being‘s Krista Tippett. Full transcript and show audio here.