Analytical Summary: Isaac Asimov “Thinking About Thinking”

    In the article, Isaac Asimov talked about intelligence, specifically with IQ test scores. He first started the article by talking about his own experience with taking the IQ test, that he worked on each question as honestly as he could, answering some questions instantly, some after a bit of thought, some by guessing, and some not at all. He then shared that he got a score of 160, which is considered “very smart”. The author questioned whether intelligence test actually measures one’s intelligence, or does it just test one’s vocabulary? In here, the author shows that he disagrees with how people label others’ intelligence based on their IQ test score.
    The author said that men in intellectual control of a dominating section of society define themselves as “intelligent”, while intelligence test are designed to give them more evidence of “intelligence” and more examples of “intelligent people”. He then argued that once a person is labelled as “Intelligent” based on an IQ test, any demonstration of stupidity no longer counts. Furthermore, he does not like the fact that label is the only thing that matters, so he used his own personal example to explain this.
    The author is labelled as an “intelligent” person based on his IQ test score. Nevertheless, he did stupid things before which made him not so intelligent. First, he talked about the car incident. In this incident, his car broke down and he was helpless, so he called his brother nearby for help. After a while, his brother said to him “With all your intelligence, Isaac, how is it you lack the brains to join the AAA?”. At this time, he just realised he is part of AAA and that he spent a while waiting for his brother instead of just ask for help from AAA. He then talked about another story, which he was in Ben Bova’s room. He was waiting for his wife to join, and finally there was a ring at the door, so he ran and opened the door. However, he dashed into the closet while Ben opened the actual door. From the two stories the author shared, he is telling us that just because a person is labelled as “intelligent”, it does not mean that person is intelligent in real life.
    Later in his article, he started to talk more seriously. He stated that black people generally have lower IQ test scores than white people. Nevertheless, he does not blame the black people, instead, he blames it on the IQ test. He suggested that the IQ test was originally for the white people, so in the IQ test there are many questions about white people’s culture. Black people’s culture is somewhat different from white people’s culture, and therefore, black people will not know how to respond to the questions. I agree with the author, the IQ questions are created for the white people, so they understand what they are asking and how to answer. On the other hand, if black people answer the questions based on their own culture, they may get the questions wrong. Consequently, black people will have to answer the questions from white people’s point of view in order to achieve better scores.
    The author further elaborated on this argument. He asked what if we test Blacks and find out that they have a higher IQ than Whites? He questioned whether we should then give them preferential treatment in jobs, let them have the best seats on the bus and theatre, give them cleaner restrooms, or give them a higher pay scale. Here it obviously shows the sarcasm the author is giving to the readers. He suspected that if Blacks had higher IQ ratings than Whites do, most Whites would think that IQ tests could not be measured accurately and that these tests cannot determine people’s intelligence.
    At the end, the author again said that once you are seen as Low-IQ, you are despised and kept there because of that, and if you are seen as High-IQ, you are feared and kept there because of that. He ended the article by giving his own viewpoint- that we all are different. Some people can do a certain things, and some people cannot. Some people can flourish, some people cannot. We should value these differences rather than using these differences to make our lives miserable.


Reference

Asimov, Isaac. "Thinking About Thinking." The Norton Mix. Ed. Elizabeth Kessler. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 15-20. Print.

This is an analytical summary. After I turned in this essay, I read the essay over and over again to see how I can improve in order to write a better essay next time. One thing I think can be improved is my examples. I found many examples, but I am not analysing it enough, I just briefly talk about it. "Quality not quantity", I told myself for future papers I must analyze the examples more in-depth, rather than just finding many examples.