 Building up on other people’s knowledge.

 First, you should learn as much

as possible from the existing knowledge. Usually intelligent people learn
everything very quickly, and thoroughly. However, they do not dwell too much
on all the possible problem statements that can get triggered by any theory.
For example - if you read a Physics book, what you actually need to do is to
understand the fundamentals very well, and be able to apply that knowledge
coherently. To be able to do this, you can solve a few problems from the book.
Perhaps if you are really enthusiastic, you can solve a lot of problems, but once
you know that you have understood the subject, you should move on to the
next thing. Richard Feynman was a great example of this, and so was John
Nash.

Breadth and depth of knowledge. Intelligent people continue to increase both breadth

and depth of their knowledge. They don’t just focus on one of the aspects. Increasing
only breadth is like being jack of all trades but master of none, and increasing only depth
is like master of one trade, but being clueless about others. Intelligent people try to
attempt getting knowledge in a variety of fields, and work on getting enough depth. Jeff
Bezos is a great example of this. He made a company that diversified into a lot of things
very quickly. Similarly, Elon Musk ventured into many companies.

 Connecting the dots. Here, you should be able to put together two
concepts and be able to solve a problem. Let me share a classic example. I am
sorry, that I do not remember where this was published originally, but the
fundamental is simple, so I am not spending too much time in researching the
source. Here are the concepts:
o If you connect two wires made of different metals at two
junctions, and set the junctions to two different temperatures, then an
electron current will flow through them.
o If you set a hot body with a constant supply of heat at a
particular temperature in air, and let the air flow at a constant speed
around it, at equilibrium, the hot body will eventually set itself to
equilibrium value of temperature, that would usually depend on the
velocity of the air, and the properties of the materials.
o By the time some of you read these two, you already know that
you can put together these two concepts, and create a device that can
measure the velocity of air with just a few things ~ two wires, battery, a
voltage-meter and so on.
o Intelligent people are really good at putting together multiple
concepts, and building something.
o A classic example is ~ Computer + Phone + Touchscreen =
iPhone.

 Inventing, innovating, exploring: Intelligent people do not settle with just

existing knowledge. They build and try new things all the time. They innovate.
They invent. They make things better. They try, they fail, they try, they fail, they
try and they succeed! Nicola Tesla is a classic example of this. He tried and
explored too many things to even count in a blog post like this.
 Learning from mistakes. Making a mistake is an opportunity to learn. Most
people in the corporate world realize this. But some people make repeated
mistakes. Intelligent people do not repeat their mistakes. They make many
mistakes, but they make them only once. Mark Zuckerberg has this
fundamental. Break things and move forward. He wants engineers to break
things, because every time something breaks down, there is a chance of next
innovation.
 Making existing things better. Intelligent people always seek opportunities
to make something better. Making an existing thing better gives the whole
world an edge to hold on to, and a completely new baseline to trend onward.
Think for example about the concept of Hyperloop. Elon Musk gave this
concept where the transportation can be made far better when the concept
materializes. The concept will be realized in future, but when it will be realized,
it would change the world.
 Having a very clear vision. Intelligent people have a very clear vision of
what they want to realize. Then they simply figure out a way to achieve that. On
the way they meet up with a lot of hurdles, but they solve them one after the
other. When Larry Page wanted to create Google, his vision was that there
should be one website, that should lead to every website in the world. Where
all websites were somehow linked and ranked. His vision was very clear. Just
that it was very hard to realize. But he started, and look, we have Google today.
 Having a good plan of action. Many people in the world are intelligent,
and they are working in multiple organizations, and making them successful.
Most of the intelligent people have a very good plan of action.
 Having a model. Intelligent people think about the world in terms of
models. What this means is that they derive certain conclusions and guiding
principles that may be driven by logic, judgment, data, or simply good feelings.
They calibrate their models by testing and experimenting in the real world.
When their models are successful, they just repeat them too many times.
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are examples that display the modeled behavior.
 Intelligent people try to generalize things. When something is general, it
has much wider applicability. Take this for a concept: Quality comes before
output. A lot of people learn this in the corporate and business world. Most of
the times product designers are taught this in their basic fundamental courses.
If an intelligent person is to learn this concept, they would apply it in whatever
they do. This way, the next thing they would build also would have great
quality. This is probably the reason Thomas Edison created so many things.
Also, Issac Newton and Albert Einstein were very intelligent people who always
liked to generalize the concepts.
 Making something easier. Intelligent people always want to simplify things.
This is what saves time in the long run. More time saved means, more time put
towards learning new things. A classic example is of a gentleman who put
wheels on suitcase. When he did that for the first time, everyone laughed at
him. Those were the days when there were porters all over the place who
would carry suitcases for people. But as world grew, this was only a redundant
 burden. The gentleman who designed suitcase with wheels for the first time
and took his idea forward to business actually became a millionaire. His name
was Mr Sadow. The Suitcase With Wheels Turns 40

 Building multi-dimensional knowledge. Intelligent people focus on

parallel processing, and applying multiple competitive approaches towards
solving problems. They don’t get stuck in one mode and say - this is the best
way. They try many ways, and bring out the best methods forward. Intelligent
people read multiple concepts. There is just no theoretical limit to the
knowledge. Intelligent people take concepts from one place and apply them at
other places. John Nash, the famous mathematician used to keep his eyes and
ears open all the time. One of the reasons behind his success was that he was
very good at applying one concept from one place to another place. This used
to make something more widely applicable with little efforts.
 Making friends with intelligent people. Intelligent people make friends
with intelligent people. They learn from them, and share their learning with
them. The best way to grow learning is to share it with someone. Those who
hide their learning are not intelligent. Knowledge only grows by sharing. And
intelligent people do not hesitate to share it.

 Reading books. smart people spend an enormous number of hours reading

books. Reading a book is equivalent to gaining the lifetime knowledge of an
expert in few hours. Intelligent people read hundreds of books, and gain the
knowledge of hundreds of people.

 Memorizing concepts. Intelligent people memorize a lot of concepts. At the

end of the day, application of concepts comes very easy, when you live,
breathe, and work by the concepts. An example would be of a programmer. An
 intelligent programmer would have memorized the whole syntax of a
programming language. Memorization of concepts can sometimes give
significant edge when you want to take up large undertakings.
 Practicing and applying concepts. Intelligent people practice a lot, and
apply learned concepts so many times, that the concepts become a part of
them. Without this, one can know a concept, but may not be able to apply it.
Then the concept is not yours, and you are not using it.
 Sharpen the saw. Intelligent people continually make things better in all the
dimensions talked above.
 Following the best of the best. When they cannot innovate, they follow the
best of the best.