Can you tell when someone is truly intelligent or if they've just memorized a lot of stuff?

[BCRanger10]

Can you tell whether someone is truly an intelligent person or if they've just memorized a lot of facts, big words, and such? How do you know?

[Smart_Monk]

It doesn't matter, we all have a place in heaven. ㅤ

[FreyaRed]

or in hell.

[Chazmatazz269]

Extensive memorization is part of intelligence. That’s actually the prevailing standard for the US public education system. However, it fairly quickly becomes obvious when a person’s knowledge base is primarily academic, and little or no application and experience. There’s also a confidence in ignorance that is rarely matched by intelligence. Smart people know what they don’t know and dumb people are often certain that they can’t be wrong. There’s a quote by Charles Bukowski which I like a lot. “The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” There are lots of quotes by profound thinkers that suggest the folly of certainty. Also, the book “Being Wrong” by Kathryn Schulz addresses phenomena like the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I am above average intelligence myself and naturally skeptical. The more confident you are, the more skeptical I become. 😂😂 I’m also a word nerd. So throwing around five dollar words will get my attention, but that’s not a good thing if you’re trying to get away with something. Especially if you use them out of proper context. 😂😂
I think most people are too dumb to tell the difference. Which is likely why confidence games are often so effective.

[Ciel7889]

intelligence is not what it used to be and sometimes we measure it with behaviour, quick wits, memorization , reasoning or how they manage the critical situation.
Though i know the person is intelligent but their personalities differs way too much

[FreyaRed]

Good memory is an indicator for intelligence but some people can reach high IQ scores without having a good memory.

[Telekinetic-Potato]

You have to be pretty intelligent to begin with. Or incredibly knowledgeable about a lot of things.

That's why memorization works so well when it comes to bullshitting people.

This is far from perfect but it definitely is a more cautious approach. When the person is answering questions, pay attention to the rhythm of their answers.

People who memorize facts will tend to answer quickly and pause for specific words.

People with experience will pause, answer and maybe pause again towards the end of a complete sentence to ponder ideology or how best to communicate an idea.

Think about it like this:

If you had to explain to someone how to walk, how might that come across differently than if you explained how to buy things with a debit card?

You're a professional at walking through and through. But the knowledge of how to do it lives in abstraction. Anyone would sound silly trying to meaningfully explain it.

But explain how you work a job, put money in an account and buy things with an identifying set of numbers, now you sound like you work for a bank. Even if you understand a million times more about walking or even running than about banks.

You need to be able to recognize the difference even if you have no idea what the person is talking about. And the best way is usually to ask good questions.

[ammar12343]

Most people cannot. Intelligence is an umbrella term, and underneath you have logical reasoning, verbal reasoning, numerical reason king, pattern recognition, etc… highly intelligent people often have a skewed distribution. Sometimes the most least expecting person is considered genius as they have a very specific niche, but operate at fairly normal levels in everything else.


For me, I have ADHD, so I have low working memory and processing speed with certain functions. Having said that, my numerical reasoning and pattern recognition are what put me in that upper echelon of intelligence. Most people when I was younger before the credentials thought I was average to below average intelligence. Just as I mentioned before, I have a very specific niche in data science that I chose as a career.


In the movie, they like to portray the genius as somebody who has a flat distribution in which they’re good at everything equally. The data doesn’t show this to be accurate. It’s quite the opposite.

[AyChingao]

How well does a person expand on the thing they are sharing. Can they explain why it's relevant. Are they just parroting common talking points that are everywhere in media currently. How do they behave when confronted with facts that disprove their statement. The knowledge should be functional, and even if the info is not readily remembered should be provable by data if the discussion is about an objective point, which is likely not possible if the point is subjective, and not ALWAYS even if the point is objective. They should be willing to re-evaluate their position if given solid factual evidence.

[NathanDavis]

both of the things you refer to... are intelligence

just different types (and there are others as well)

and I don't consider any, more intelligent than the other and also.. the same person can have both as well

[DryGermanGuy]

That are the differences between factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge. So, if you ask a person spouting lots of raw facts to adapt those facts to a new scenario and they can’t do it, there is your answer.

[Intelligent_Lady]

Real intelligence is more about thinking ability, flexibility, and understanding, not just stored information.

[AngryCarl3]

I memorized a lot of stuff. Then I forgot it. Then my brain turned to mush.

[Anonymous]

Well, having an ability to memorize a lot of stuff is a form of intelligence (accumulative).

[TheGreatCornholio79]

I think intelligence part of it retaining the memory.

[MissSunshine2]

Often you can tell. But it takes time.

[sage2021]

How does one measure intelligence?