Define intelligence? Intelligence just...is.

Giftedness. Extraordinary insight, learning speed, creativity, abstraction, and reasoning power, all inborn. People whose thoughts and thinking style differ wildly from the norm, who can't fit in because they're so far beyond everyone. People who must reign in their perfect knowledge, impeccable intellect, and drive for challenge so others don't feel too inferior. Admittedly, technical, logico-mathematical intelligence is the best and most recognized embodiment as opposed to say, verbal or artistically related displays.

Actually, the inborn aspects is one of the most painful. It occurred to me today that, considering my many past failures with regard to the fact that IQ is genetic (along, I assume, with functions of intelligence like creativity and problem-solving), most any "self-improvement" is futile. I can't learn anymore, I'm not sure I could ever learn. And given my age and the onset of cognitive pruning, I can only get worse. So no going back to school, definitely no self-ed, no learning new skills, etc. It's a waste of time. And it's killing me to think about this.

Whoa that was a tangent.

And no, practicality is not better. That's a copout and a fairy tale. Any stupid monkey can be practical. Human civilization is as advanced as it is because of intelligence.