I don't completely agree with the author's premise. However, there are enough people who act like lab rats; they spend their life optimizing certain parameters:

I don't completely agree with the author's premise. However, there are enough people who act like lab rats; they spend their life optimizing certain parameters: becoming really good coders, mathematicians, getting high scores on standardized IQ tests. They however also utterly fail at solving life's problems (relationships at work, elsewhere). The label "intelligent" as applied to these people doesn't necessarily always mean they get things done.