Exploring Human Intelligence: The Corolla Summit and Cheese-Hotdog Luncheon

Driving back from Russian Math class this morning, Daniel and I had some interesting conversations.

He asked me who is the dumbest person that I've ever known - "not counting babies."  That was a really difficult question for me; it's much easier to say what seem to be the stupidest mistakes people have ever made than who is the proud possessor of maximal stupidity.  If we counted the "workforce" in Washington, I would have any number of candidates ready, but he was asking about people I personally know.

The next question:  "Who is the smartest person you've ever known?"

Similarly difficult.

I explained to Daniel that there are many different areas of intelligence, and that one trait of the smartest person in the world is that they would realize that they're not the master of all of those categories.  I also told him that the dumbest person in the world probably thinks that they're terrifically smart.  At that point, he wanted to make sure I wasn't talking about him.  Of course I wasn't - the lad is frighteningly intelligent - but it's funny that he thinks he might be that person who thinks he's the smartest.

I enumerated some of the forms of intelligence that exist - beyond math and reading/writing, there are of course, all kinds of other areas, such as emotional intelligence and, as I identified it for him, "planning your life."

It turned out that Daniel had his life already planned out.  He's going to own two stores, and then he'll be a millionaire, and then a billionaire, and eventually a "googolplexaire."  Yes - that was a new term for me - a person in possession of googolplex dollars - or 1-with-a-million-million-zeros dollars.  That's apparently Daniel's plan.

My own intelligence was put to the test when Daniel said that he was hungry.  I scored somewhere above "imbecile," because I declined a trip to Five Guys in favor of Market Basket.  Five Guys makes great burgers and fries, but they're really expensive.  Market Basket charges less than three dollars for a full package of an order for fries plus a burger or two hot dogs, and they're pretty good.

Daniel wanted to go to the Market Basket in Salem.  I told him I wasn't sure they had the same kind of grill - he told me they do, but he knows Salem better than I do, thanks to his peregrinations there with Mommy.  In any case, I thought he could wait a bit until we got to our own Market Basket.  We went there, and he ordered cheese on top of his two hot dogs (why ask why?).  As we got to the condiments station in the food court, Mommy triumphantly sneaked up on us, enjoyed the element of surprise, and then yelled at us for getting cheese, a.k.a. "lactose," with Daniel's hot dog. 

As we got into the parking lot, Daniel said, "That's another reason why we should have gone to the other Market Basket."

I wanted to hear the reason out loud, just to be sure, and he pointed out that if we had gone to the other Market Basket, we wouldn't have run into the diet police.

So maybe I do have a clue as to the smartest person I know...

(September 20, 2014)