today a kid asked me what "intellectual competence" meant (they need to write an essay about their own development)
I considered saying something cutting about it meaning the ability to look up definitions on your own, but! they had actually already looked it up on google
google says:
"Intellectual competence is an overarching construct comprising cognitive and non-cognitive traits, based on the identification of empirically observable individual differences leading to differences in future achievement."
the joke is that that's a terrible definition even if you know what all the words in it mean, & asking for help there was absolutely the right call.
@octopus So ability to swim is part of intellectual competence? Or lack of fear of heights (it affects whether you'll be a successful alpinist)? Or (lack of) claustrophobia? Or body weight? I don't think that definition says what the author intended: it doesn't really constrain the traits to ones that have anything to do with intellect.
