I think a lot of commenters here correctly point out the fallacies in the author's practical suggestions while missing the core thesis: American society increas

I think a lot of commenters here correctly point out the fallacies in the author's practical suggestions while missing the core thesis: American society increasingly mistakes intelligence for human worth. To paraphrase in simple terms: More and more people value intelligence and this is a bad trend. To evaluate this thesis, I think it's important to first define what a 'value' is. To me, values are the measuring sticks by which people quantify success in life. Whether or not we realize it, we constantly measure our actions against our values, and how we 'measure up' determines our self-worth. So, what makes something a 'bad' value? That's a hard question to answer in completion, but I think that one of the 'bad' characteristics is if the value is outside of your control. It's bad to value something outside your control because it's impossible to effect change against it to make yourself feel good about yourself. Instead, I'd rather value HOW I act. Did I make my best effort towards accomplishing my goals? Did I learn something today? Did I help someone? These are things that are entirely in my control and will lead to higher fulfillment. If I measure myself based on intelligence, the days when I'm in a meeting completely surrounded by people smarter than me, I'm going to feel pretty damn shitty. Would you feel worse about yourself if you woke up tomorrow and lost 30 IQ points?