Merriam Webster's Essay What Is Intelligence Anyway?

Intelligence, noun: The skill used of reason (Merriam Webster). Throughout history many people, psychologists mostly, have studied this topic. One of these people happened to be an American developmental psychologist named Howard Gardner. He believed there to be 9 types of Intelligence and in a world, with 7 billion people it's not hard to argue that there's certainly more than one. In the essay “What Is Intelligence Anyway?” the car mechanic mocks jokingly how the man with a college degree isn't street smart. My view on things is that the car mechanic is actually holding some truth with his statement. Just because you're street smart doesn't mean you're book smart, growing up in a big family surrounded by different intellectual mindsets made me come to that conclusion.
My oldest brother Zach who's 10 years older than I am has a knack for technical things, Logical intelligence. He's aware of how to take things apart and put them back together, in fact, he's always been that way. I recall my father telling me a story once about when Zach was a little kid. My Dad was trying to
turn on the tv but it wouldn't work for some reason that's when he had a suspicion, taking a closer look he was able to find the cords were all unplugged so he found my brother, and instead of getting mad over such an arbitrary matter he asked Zach in a gentle manner, “Did you find the magic tv box?” Zach nodded excitedly “Uh-huh!” “Do you think that you can put it back to the way it was?” “Yeah, yeah!” And just like that, he did. My Dad went on to tell me he had a gut feeling Zach would end up working on tech stuff one day and turns out Zach does, he works for Lutron as a Tech Support man.
Now as for brother Ben who's 6 years older than me he has musical intellect, playing various instruments: Viola, Drums, Bass, Accordion, Guitar, Trombone, and, Handbells. I also remember he played some piano but I believe he grew out of it as did Nate and I as well. My whole family is musically inclined thanks to my Mother who used to be a music teacher. However, I chose to use Ben for this example due to the fact that he plays the most instruments.
My last brother Nate who's only 4 years older than I am has Interpersonal and Linguistic intelligence and is able to make friends wherever he goes. I recall multiple times, on vacation specifically, where he practically went from strangers to friends with someone in a matter of minutes. The first reconciliation I can recall was when he and I were both kids. We were walking on Cocoa Beach and we somehow met this boy about our age possibly a year younger than me, I forgot his name, but I didn’t forget that it only took that very brief encounter for us to both score an invitation to his birthday party later that evening. My next memory of him instantaneously forming a friendship in a matter of minutes was only a few years ago on our last trip out to Cocoa Beach. Mom suggested he find someone to surf with so literally I watched as he grabbed his board and went over towards these group of guys and just like that they were friends and they hung out throughout the week we were in Florida. It amazed me then and it still does now. Quite frankly I consider myself to be myself consider to be rather introverted. I have my group of friends that I stick to and that’s that. My best friend I've had since Kindergarten.
As I previously stated, my Mother has musical intelligence due to her background in teaching. My Father has a different set of skills though. He’s a businessman who formed his own company that managed to be quite successful. He designs software and sells it to clients. Just to name a few of his clients: Tastykake, and Kraft. For doing this kind of work he has to have both Logical intelligence as well as Interpersonal intellect because he has to know how to make smart decisions and also work with people of different backgrounds.
Lastly, as for me I myself am musically inclined, having been blessed with a good ear when it comes to rhythms and sounds.
As a kid I grew up playing the violin, Still, to this day, I remember my mom to waking me up early to practice before school started. I was great at it I played for years and even played at May Fair for one of my recitals. Going back to when I said I had an “ear for rhythms and sounds” I meant that I could hear a sound being played and then easily mimic and play that rhythm back to you. I recall neglecting to read the music sheets for awhile during music lessons because they were “too hard” at the time or it simply just took extra energy and time that I didn't care to spare and if my teacher would play the song I'm supposed to be learning for me to hear a couple of times I thought “Why should I bother?” Eventually, my mom and teacher caught on and had me read the
notes.
There are 9 different types of Intelligence according to Howard Gardner: Naturalistic (nature smart), Musical (sound smart), Logical (math/number smart), Existential (life smart), Interpersonal (people smart), Intrapersonal (self smart), bodily Kinesthetic (body smart), Linguistic (word smart), Spatial (picture smart) and we are all made up of these different forms (blog.adioma). Some people possess more of one than the other and that’s okay because each of us is unique. What form of intelligence do you think you can relate to the most?