A footballer and a scholar
The vast majority of things worth learning take years to master: various sports, medicine, mathematics, painting, dance... In all these activities the brain learns, not the body. The body may develop the necessary muscles, but it's the easy part. It's really the brain that works.
So then why do people admire the brains of doctors who study 10 years or mathematicians who study 8 and not (usually!) those of ice hockey players or footballers? Think about it: there are various functions in the brain and in the mind of a footballer some of these functions are performed so, so extremely well. It's worth admiring, right?
It's true though that what we usually refer to as intelligence is confined to the cognitive function rather than any other brain function. The object of admiration is then this intelligence and this presumed cognitive function. The danger however is that it is actually a thin layer of very specific things. I've met mathematicians armed with a PhD who believed they were smarter than most other people, but that belief was mainly instilled in them culturally, or by their parents, or by their university, but not necessarily based on "real life" whatever that is. In actual fact, these well-developed things are specific to the task at hand, much like a footballer's skills are highly specific to their task.
So like in that old Russian children's song: "All trades are needed, all trades are important!" Diversity is great, and one should not give more credit to one skill that takes yeas to master than to another skill that also takes years to master.
So then why do people admire the brains of doctors who study 10 years or mathematicians who study 8 and not (usually!) those of ice hockey players or footballers? Think about it: there are various functions in the brain and in the mind of a footballer some of these functions are performed so, so extremely well. It's worth admiring, right?
It's true though that what we usually refer to as intelligence is confined to the cognitive function rather than any other brain function. The object of admiration is then this intelligence and this presumed cognitive function. The danger however is that it is actually a thin layer of very specific things. I've met mathematicians armed with a PhD who believed they were smarter than most other people, but that belief was mainly instilled in them culturally, or by their parents, or by their university, but not necessarily based on "real life" whatever that is. In actual fact, these well-developed things are specific to the task at hand, much like a footballer's skills are highly specific to their task.
So like in that old Russian children's song: "All trades are needed, all trades are important!" Diversity is great, and one should not give more credit to one skill that takes yeas to master than to another skill that also takes years to master.