Part 2
Perfection’s Folly
Having administered literally thousands of
intelligence tests to all sorts of subjects during
Larry Wonderling my working days, I consider myself pretty wellqualified to testify categorically that I wouldn’t
have had the slightest idea how to assess a human with perfect
intelligence.
I happen to be one of those imperfect humans who is still tackling
my own flaws. Even David Wechsler, the brilliant author of the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the indispensable benchmark
of all intelligence tests in the U.S., stumbles when confronted
with perfection. He cautions: “the information obtained from
intelligence tests is relevant to the extent that it establishes
and reflects whatever it is one defines as overall capacity for
intelligent behavior.” In other words there’s not even a “perfect”
definition of intelligence.
Moreover, in order to find the intellectually perfect human, we
flawed professionals would need to statistically compare this
human to the brightest of the bright using the identical variables
which in itself would be insurmountable.
Another overwhelming problem with even defining intelligence
is an added comment by Wechsler, “Intelligence is not always
adaptive, nor does it inevitably involve abstract reasoning…
What it always calls for is not a particular ability but an overall
competency or global capacity.” Wow, I think I know what he
said.
Then there’s another of life’s slippery slopes. It’s the person
who keeps searching for the perfect mate. That’s one more
of perfection’s follies that too often backfires into unresolved
conflicts or endless disappoi