In more than a few instances in my life, this phrase has been said to me and it typically wasn’t meant as a compliment. Assuredly, I am not the first human to have ever received this dubious designation. So, what exactly does the user of this ill-intended phrase mean when they use it? Not only is this phrase not a compliment, it is essentially meaningless anywa
For starters, we need to define what differently even means in the first place. Many people can identify what intelligence is when they see it manifested in other human being, however it is incredibly difficult to put an agreed-upon definition behind it. Part of this is because there is a widely varying view of what intelligence even is, especially in the scientific community.
Is the sign of intelligence the ability to quickly read a text and disseminate the information contained therein? This is what many school districts in the United States attempted to do in the wake of the infamous No Child Left Behind Act of the early 2000’s. The standardized testing attracted the scorn of parents, teachers, students, education experts, and pundits alike (though, who the hell cares what a pundit has to say anyways?). An entire philosophy has spawned in an attempt to transition away from this methodology. Therefore, this alone cannot be the answer.
Perhaps it’s having great rote memorization? While I’ll concede that this is a useful skill, it simply cannot exist in a vacuum. Medical doctors have great rote memorization skills since that is often a necessity for the punishing demands of medical school. However, memorizing that the myelin sheath aids the transition of an electric signal down the length of a neuron isn’t very helpful if you cannot then act on and apply that knowledge to the task at hand. So, while rote memorization is important, there is more to the equation.
Problem solving is another possible answer to what intelligence is. This possibly is the most sought-after attribute to have in the real-world; mankind will always have a problem to solve, and there will always be a problem in your life. However, simply solving the problem closest to you without having the bandwidth to zoom out and look at the greater scenario and move into preventing problems is of limited utility.
Maybe being a great logician, and therefore being persuasive is the sign of great intelligence? Being able to present your case in a clear and concise way while doing so with iron-clad reasoning is indeed valuable. However, there are many highly analytically intelligent people who are not great at debates. History is littered with geniuses who were not able to convince others of their way of thinking, so it is definitely possible to have other signs of intellect but be deficient in this area.
The true answer is that great intellect is a mix of all of these and more, and thus having one standard definition is not going to be the answer. Humans are a highly variable species and hence most (if not all) of us innately have this wide mix of abilities. The question then becomes a matter of proportions; there are of course people who are fantastic at rote memorization but cannot read body language of humans well. Ditto for the great conversationalist that would likely fail an algebra test, or a doctor who has memorized various physiology textbooks over the years but isn’t very good at playing chess. Let this be your reminder that every human has strengths and weaknesses.
In the handful of times I’ve received the Your brain works differently line in the last few years, the one speaking to me really should have added than mine at the end of their sentence. Fair enough, but as mentioned earlier, human brains aren’t one size fits all. However, the sentence Your brain works differently than mine still isn’t very helpful on the surface. Brains are not like motherboards; manufactured to a list of tight specifications, standardized, and therefore fungible. Every individual thinks differently from others to a certain extent.
More often than not, the one using that line is really just saying that Your brain works differently than what is currently expected. This line is horribly judgmental. In one context I was paid this “compliment” was from a colleague I’ll call Ricky. Ricky came to me with a step-by-step list of instructions that he feigned not understanding in order to have someone give him the answer. Ricky typically couldn’t be bothered to sift through things like this, even in the best of circumstances. Flattery was Ricky’s intent, and I mentally noted the backhanded compliment when it happened.
In our modern society, there is a large push in organizations looking to hire candidates to push for diversity. Diversity is important because a collection of people who all think the same will inevitably have the same blind spots, both culturally and strategically. The book Red Teaming by Bryce Hoffman (a fantastic read!) builds his foundational concept on forming teams that are able to detect blind-spots in plans, to be able to conduct pre-mortem analyses of proposed ideas, suggest countermeasures, and more. Absolutely none of this is possible in an organization where everyone thinks the same, if nobody’s brain worked differently. This fact needs to be treated like the asset that it truly is.
It is time to retire this saying. Unless the one using this phrase is painstakingly specific in what they mean, the phrase doesn’t actually say anything. It is a best a backhanded compliment and at worst an outright insult, a judgment of one’s abilities. In addition to the caustic element of the phrase, it shows a misunderstanding-or worse yet, an indifference-of the wide variation of human abilities.
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