How do I become more intelligent?

A quiet answer for “I don’t feel very smart” — and a practice you can start today.

From my friend Lumen —

You’re not missing horsepower. You’re missing distinctions with words for them.

The people who sound nuanced aren’t storing more facts. They have more precise words that match what they’re actually noticing — inside and out — so the world comes into finer focus for them. And you can learn that same move.

One reframe that dissolves the shame

Intelligence is the ability to make finer distinctions.

Intelligence is the measure of the number and the quality of the distinctions you have in a given situation.

Read that again slowly. Intelligence isn’t a test score or a fixed trait. It’s how many useful differences you can perceive and name — anger vs. disappointment, scarcity vs. crowding, curiosity vs. obligation — and how well those distinctions fit reality.

If that’s right, then “becoming more intelligent” isn’t proving you’re smart. It’s learning to see one more true difference than you saw yesterday, and finding the word that fits it.

How you actually make finer distinctions

If Robert Kiyosaki's definition of intelligence is correct (Intelligence is the ability to make finer distinctions), then it behooves us to understand how to make finer distinctions. People make finer distinctions through words, and words frame the realities people perceive. Think of the way you see reality as a spectrum which at the top is where you are most conscious, and at the bottom, you are least conscious, the place of your subconscious. To a significant degree, your level of self-awareness coupled with your ability to match words to what you're aware of determines your ability to make finer distinctions. People who can articulate perceptions of their consciousness from top to bottom using precise vocabulary are better able to make fine distinctions of their inner and outer experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

This is the practice:

Notice one finer distinction today and give it a precise word. Not a fancier word — a truer one.

When you catch yourself saying “I’m stressed,” pause: is it overloaded (too many inputs), tender (something mattered and feels exposed), or torn (two goods competing)? Each word points to a different need and a different next step — and each time you match word to experience more precisely, your intelligence in that situation grows.

Where to start, so you’ll actually do it

Each person has a Devine design psychically, spiritually, and neurologically which enables them to do, say, and think in a way that is one of a kind. Therefore to become even more intelligent, a person must ask themselves, “What topics do I want to explore? What am I curious to learn?” When you can honestly answer these questions by tapping into and speaking truth about your interests, then you know where to start your quest for intelligence since you are likely to only read about those topics which strike your curiosity. It's hard to read topics that bore you. The journey to become even more intelligent is paved not with obligations or “shoulds,” but with curiosity.

Try this for seven days. Each evening, write one sentence: Today I learned the difference between ___ and ___. That’s it. Language following attention, attention following language — that loop is where the “nuance” other people seem to have is actually built.

You don’t need to out-read anyone. You need to follow what genuinely makes you curious, because you’ll only keep reading what keeps calling you. Intelligence grows faster on curiosity than on “should.”