What Is Crystallized Intelligence?

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crystallized intelligence is the synthesis of many ideas across multiple disciplines. It's also known as wisdom. When i first got my ph d, i'm an economis and was writing this mathematical theory that today i don't even understand. But now i write for the atlantic. And i'm reading 15 academic journal articles a week written by these hot shod, brilliant young scholars. They don't really know how you could apply it to your life. That's what it means to have crystallized intelligence. You can synthesize knowledge across many fields. You can tell stories based on other people's work. Now, when my fluid intelligence was really i was writing papers like that. Now

#363: In our 20’s and 30’s, we have high levels of fluid intelligence, or raw intellectual horsepower. We can ace tests, impress people with our memory and recall, and analyze facts, documents and data.

But in our 40’s and 50’s, we have higher levels of crystallized intelligence, which allows us to draw together novel insights from across domains.

Fluid intelligence allows us to analyze, or break apart.

Crystallized intelligence allows us to synthesize, or put together.

Each type of intelligence invites us to express different skills, to pivot our role at work – or perhaps even to change careers or industries altogether.

In today’s episode, Harvard professor Arthur Brooks discusses these two types of intelligence, and outlines how we can gracefully move from one strength to the next.

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