A few comments about emotional intelligence. Of the 2523 members, some of them care
about emotional intelligence, some of them care about genius, and some about neither.
I'll say a few words about why there is not much overlap between the ones who care about
emotional intelligence and the ones who care about genius. It boils down to personality
types. Whether you use a Myers-Briggs classification as here, or Holland types, or some
other
type, humans have different fundamental motivations. The "NT" types will be quite
stimulated
by achievement while the "NF"s will be striving for people to get along, and the other types
will care about other things altogether (the "SP"s will want to have fun and the "SJ"s will
want
to make sure that everything's under control).
Speaking for the other "NT"s on the list, I would say that we don't really see emotional
intelligence as such a valuable of commodity. I don't ever wake up feeling like I would
really like to have more emotional intelligence today. How about you look at the
various criticisms of the very concept of emotional intelligence on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence
e.g. that it's something that could instead be used to screen out people from jobs, just
another form of discrimination like ethnicity or age.
I'm a bit weary of people who have too much emotional intelligence, for example some of
my former investment banking colleagues, who could use their people skills and charisma
to make quite a bit of money. There is a theory in evolutionary biology (which I subscribe
to) that
intelligence evolved primarily in gregarious species (primates, whales, birds, etc),
due to the necessity for higher intelligence in order to navigate social interactions.
The "NT"s on the list don't tend to view slick salesmanship as the most desirable form
of intelligence: despite intelligence having evolved due to the need to cooperate and
deceive others, we prefer to regard the artistic/scientific form of achievement as more
valuable.
Of course, I have read "Emotional Intelligence", by Goleman. I have also read his other
book "Vital lies, simple truths: the psychology of self-deception". The "NF"s will certainly
find that book quite distasteful. I've had several "NF"s girlfriends, and they are wonderful
people, so it's great for society to have them around... But none of them had much
warmth for the objectivity of evolutionary psychology. Another pretty depressing book
is "Stumbling on Happiness" by Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert. Whether you find the
book depressing might however have much more to do with how you filter information.
I'm mentioning that book because a career counselor recommended it to me (a long
time after I had read it) for help on choosing a career. I found that quite funny. Made
me wonder if we had read the same book! In conclusion, thumbs down on emotional
intelligence.
--- In imagestream%40yahoogroups.com">imagestream
yahoogroups.com, "Teresa Evanko" <joeteresazoeanna...> wrote:
>
> I have a recommendation for all you wannabe geniuses---read
> Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel
> Goleman
.
