Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Making Sense of Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner - Episode 68

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. Dornick podcast. This podcast covers topics that expand human consciousness and performance. On the Make Sense podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is a subjective and acquired taste. What we know is that when you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. Dornick podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Make sense. Great morning, friends. Great morning, humans. This is your boy, Dr. J.C. Dornick. And welcome to another edition of the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast. This is a special one. For those of you that follow, I read about a book a week. And I have Jim Quick to thank for that.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Who taught me how to speed read and increase my memory retention. In any case, I just wanted to give a shout out to my buddy Jim. It's manifested over the years in me reading about a book a week. Today we're going to make sense of a book that I recently read called Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner. How did I find this book? That's always an interesting thing about finding books. It was Robert Green. And I think I have one of his books up here.

Starting point is 00:01:27 Yeah, Laws of Human Nature. Robert Green was just talking about it as one of the most suggested books. that he encourages people to read. When I hear things like that, and I love, I've read all of Robert Green's books, I go get the book, right? I just go to Amazon and I get the book. I like to buy books,

Starting point is 00:01:43 but I also like to listen to audiobooks. That's where I got the information from. So shout out to Robert Green. So let me just tell you quickly a little bit about the author. So Howard Gardner is a true pioneer in the field of education and human cognition. I love human cognition.

Starting point is 00:02:00 You know, cognition is just being aware of the different faculties of your body and aspects of reality. He's a professor at the esteemed Harvard Graduate School of Education. Howard is best known for his groundbreaking theory of multiple intelligences. You've heard a lot about multiple personalities, but this is a really unique one. This book talks about multiple intelligences, and that's kind of what this particular book is about, which he revolutionized this idea of how we understand human potential. We've got this very, very baseline way of looking at human potential and intelligence,

Starting point is 00:02:36 and he's expanded on that. This guy's written over 30 books, translated into 32 languages, My Hero, and countless awards he's won, including the MacArthur Genius Fellowship. How cool is that? Hey, Mom, I just won the MacArthur Genius Fellowship Award. Howard's influence spans academia, public policy, and also very, very pertinent to this book, educational reform. You're going to see soon, this is a really, really big point in what he points out is that the education system has a lot of wiggle room. My buddy Jim Quick talks about that as well.

Starting point is 00:03:12 His ongoing projects delve into ethics, morality, and the art of synthesizing knowledge, manifesting more knowledge. Join me as we dive into the mind of one of the most influential thinkers of our time, Howard Gardner. It's almost like he's here. We're going to make sense of it, but we're going to bring into your five senses the information behind Howard Gardner's amazing book, like I said, called Frames of Mind. The subtitle is The Theory of Multiple Intelligencees. And this is 1983 book by Howard Gardner and a 528 page book, which for me, that's like a two-week read for all of you speed readers out there. And it introduces this new perspective and revolutionary theory of intelligence that challenges the traditional view of intelligence.

Starting point is 00:03:57 What's your traditional view of intelligence? As one-dimensional, typically we use things like IQ and mathematics and think about the intelligence placement exams that we have as children. Gardner proposes in this book that there are multiple types of intelligence, each of which reflects a different way of processing information and problem solving, almost like superpowers. His theory is grounded in cognitive science, psychology, and education. and it emphasizes the diversity of human abilities beyond the academic achievement or standardized testing that were used to. You know, I've always wondered about that. When my kids would go in for standardized testing, they were being tested based on this foundation of intelligence that the educational system had created.

Starting point is 00:04:49 But it never really gave our kids the ability to unveil their superpower, their own unique version of intelligence. is what I was so fascinated with when I heard about this book. Recognizing these multiple types of intelligence that I'm going to share with you in this short form summary is a practice of becoming aware of your own cognitive faculties, becoming aware of your superpowers. Some of you have strengths here and weaknesses here, but we all have strengths and identifying which one of those represent that superpower. And here's the notion, if we have the ability to identify something that we are just naturally good at and learn how to use that superpower, we're going to advance more. We're going to get better results. Whatever metrics you use to measure your success, you're going to get

Starting point is 00:05:36 better results. Now, you know that in the Make Sense Academy, we use this main principle that says that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works. It's who you are that determines how well what you do works. Maybe you don't know who you are. Maybe you haven't been allowed to figure out who you are, because if you did, you would understand your superpowers or your specific genius, and you could learn how to exploit that in this world and be perceived by many as a rock star. You might be a rock star, but playing in a sandbox full of people that are doing things that you're just not born to do. You're not good at, or you haven't put the work in.

Starting point is 00:06:14 So let's get into it. I'm going to basically go through the different types of intelligence, my main takeaways, and I'll give you a close. So we're going to fly now. Ward Gardner in his book identifies at least eight distinct intelligences. Each one of them represents a different cognitive faculty. So if you don't understand what cognitive faculty means, it means like, you know, the different functions of your senses, which ones that you are acutely better at.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Okay, so here are the eight distinct intelligences. So number one, linguistic intelligence. That means that you are somebody that has a sensitivity to spoken and written language. Words mean a lot of things. You'll see that you'll have multiple ones like this, like the five languages of love, but one of them will really hit. The ability to learn languages, so somebody that has linguistic intelligence, learns language is very easy or picks them up, and they have the capacity to use language in a very successful fashion to express oneself rhetorically or poetically. I'm a public speaker. I can take information and I can translate it. So I know that I have some linguistic

Starting point is 00:07:22 intelligence. So number two would be logical, mathematical intelligence. Man, these people boggle my mind. I'm not one of them. So these are the people that have the ability to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations in their head very often, and investigate issues scientifically. I met an individual the other day, and he is like a genius, almost savant in this area and I'm fascinated by it and I have no interest in delving into that. Right. So that would be number two, logical mathematical intelligence. Number three is spatial intelligence.

Starting point is 00:08:01 This one's really, really cool. This type of intelligence is when somebody has the ability to think in three, maybe even four dimensions. These are people that are very, very intuitive and realize that there's more going on. So they have this fascination with looking at things and shape. and architecture and things like that, which includes skills in visualizing and also manipulating objects with their mind, right, and understanding the spatial relationships between them. My daughter wants to be an architect.

Starting point is 00:08:35 She's very, very spatially intelligent. So that's really, really cool. If you figure this out, it's like a language of love. You're going to kick some serious ass in 2025. So number four, bodily kinesthetic intelligence. These are the people that have the capacity to manipulate objects with physicality. These are people that are strong, athletic type people, or even maybe limber and like yoga type people or, you know, people that just have a lot of range of motion and flexibility.

Starting point is 00:09:04 They're very, very intelligent with their bodily kinesthetic. It includes coordination, balance, and dexterity, often seen in athletes, dancers, and surgeons, or at least you hope surgeons, or perhaps even in children. that can perform extraordinary feats with hand controllers like gamers or Rubik's Cube type people. Your intelligence, this is not something that they pick up on on these exams that our kids are taken, right? But imagine if you figured out that your intelligence is bodily kinesthetic intelligence. Well, then you would learn how to get on a track with that right away and kick some serious butt. So number five, remember there's eight.

Starting point is 00:09:43 Musical intelligence. This one is really, really cool and it's fun. this is somebody though that has a very very large degree of sensitivity to sounds rhythms tones and music you might be somebody like my daughter and i that like almost feels like we know the lyrics to every song you might also find yourself saying oh i wonder if these songs would go together DJs would be very very musically intelligent it includes the ability to recognize create and manipulate musical patterns beethoven once again not picked up on early enough in school Like we find out about these things later after the formative years have already created our programming.

Starting point is 00:10:23 So number six, interpersonal intelligence. That would be the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. Now, this one is kind of dragon-esque, right? I love this. I love human behavior. And I love bouncing the ball of communication between people. I love picking up on just different energies and bodily movements and things like that. So that would be the ability to understand and interact effectively with others.

Starting point is 00:10:50 It includes empathy. This is something we can always improve on. Sensitivity to the moods and feelings of others, as well as the ability to communicate, not just perceive, but communicate well in social situations. You might have the gift of gab. You might be somebody that it feels comfortable in the realm of just starting conversations. Number seven, intrapersonal intelligence. Interpersonal is different than intrapersonal.

Starting point is 00:11:16 Here's the difference. Intrapersonal intelligence, Gardner states, is the ability to understand oneself. How well do you know yourself and your thoughts and your emotions? I spend a lot of time in that space. Recently, one of the biggest breakthroughs that I made is that there lives a space in between your thoughts. I found it through transcendental meditation. So imagine that. If you're getting caught up with all of your thoughts and feelings and fears and overwhelm and anxiety and all of that, stuff. Just entertain the idea that there's a space in between your thoughts. That's intrapersonal intelligence to be able to do that. And to use that knowledge to guide behavior and decision making. Some people are really good at making good decisions because they know themselves. We talk a lot

Starting point is 00:12:02 about that in the Make Sense Academy. We talk about building a sorting filter that receives information from people and things and events that is customized to your wants, needs, and must have in life. that would be somebody that has intrapersonal intelligence that has the ability to create such a sorting filter because they know themselves. Okay, finally, the last intelligence, and then I'll go over my takeaways, is naturalistic intelligence. Naturalistic intelligence is fascinating. I'm fascinated with most of these, except for the math one. It may be in some ways, but naturalistic intelligence is this. These are people that have a sensitivity, perceptual-wise, but also kinesthetically, sensitivity to the natural world and the ability to recognize and categorize flora and fauna.

Starting point is 00:12:49 I'll explain what those are in a second and other aspects of the natural environment. So in case you don't understand what flora means, Flora, F-L-O-R-A means the basic recognition of like plant life in a region, including trees, shrubs, and grass. When you walk around, do you notice those things? And do you feel in some way connected to the flora? Now, fauna, F-A-U-N-A, remember this is naturalistic intelligence. Fauna being the animal life in a region, right? A lot of people, this is my mom. A lot of people feel

Starting point is 00:13:20 very, very attached to the energy and communication of animals, right? A lot of people just feel totally connected with animals, including mammals, fish, and birds. And then there's a term called biota, B-I-O-T-A, which is the collective term for flora and fauna. If you're naturalistically intelligent, it means that you're in touch with nature. As somebody that's quite a bit of time in the Amazon jungle, I have become extremely naturalistically intelligent. I'm almost positive at this phase of my life at 53 that we are just some sort of Wi-Fi extensions of nature. Nature is super, super cool. And it resembles the structure of the human brain in so many ways. Go underground and see that anything that you look outside of, that is of nature,

Starting point is 00:14:09 is connected to all of nature around the whole world through this vast organization of like synapses, just like our brain underground. So Gardner also hints, by the way, a little bit of a bonus at a ninth intelligence, right? He says there's only eight, but he hints at a ninth intelligence, and that would be existential intelligence, which basically is related to the ability to grapple with deep questions about human existence. That is the dragon. I love nine.

Starting point is 00:14:37 I'm going to go with nine. deep questions about human existence. I mean, the whole nature of the Makes Sense podcast is to address the things that make you go, hmm. And this also, you know, entails, you know, things like the meaning of life and the universe around us and, you know, is it even real and things like that? So there are your eight and a half forms of intelligence. Okay, here are my primary takeaways from this book, Frame of Mind.

Starting point is 00:15:01 I suggest this book, so 528 page book, but these are my main takeaways if you just want to have this happen on Mondays. So my first takeaway is that intelligence is multifaceted. And what I mean by that is Gardner's primary idea and a thesis is that intelligence is not a single fixed trait, but it consists of multiple distinct domains. What I want to just point out there is that that means that what we've been taught intelligence is is not necessarily what is. It's just what we've been taught.

Starting point is 00:15:31 So this view, this multifaceted view, contrasts with traditional models of intelligence, which often focus on things like linguistic and logical mathematic abilities. How boring is that? That does not pick up on the genius of our children. Parents, you understand this. Chime in on this. So basically, this is about expanding so that we can create a better understanding and relationship with our intelligence.

Starting point is 00:15:58 And by doing that, it could become extremely useful on advancing our life experience. So in other words, getting better results by using our science. superpowers rather than applying someone else's version of intelligence. Think about how our kids at a very young age are being challenged and judged to see how they stack up against the rest of the boring world. Rather than identifying their superpower and then getting them on track with that right away, it's almost like if Superman was spending all of his time trying to shoot a web out of his hand. What a waste of time. He would be so bad at that, right? just let Spider-Man do that.

Starting point is 00:16:38 Superman can shoot lasers out of his eyes and jump from buildings, but he might not get the chance to figure that out in our education system. So number two takeaway, cultural relevance. This is a big one, and I talk a lot about this in the Make Sense Academy, the fact that our brains are for the most part programmed by our mother, father, teacher, preacher. So there's something called cultural relevance he speaks about, and this was a big takeaway.

Starting point is 00:17:00 Each intelligence that I mentioned before is influenced by cultural context and different societies that we grow up in, and we all do, have this tendency of prioritizing or valuing different types of intelligences rather than identifying our own. So, for example, some cultures may place a greater importance on interpersonal or naturalistic skills over academic or in reverse. You might be having a lot of pressure to become academically intelligent by achieving academics, but completely missing the fact that you can shoot lasers out of your eyes. So there's a good chance, therefore, that your chosen intelligence, and it might even have influence on the one that you've just identified your good at, may be one that you have adopted to suit the needs of your cultural bias, including religion and politics.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Take a pause on that. Take a look around. Are you exercising your genius? Or have you just gotten good at what you were taught to get good at? This is a fascinating thing because it unveils this lack of free. that we have without even knowing it to choose and develop our inborn skill sets. Oh, what a takeaway that was. Number three, educational implications. So I spoke a lot about this. Gardner's theory challenges the traditional education system, which tends to emphasize verbal and mathematical intelligence.

Starting point is 00:18:25 That's our placement system, verbal and mathematic intelligence. Why is that so important? I'll tell you why it's important. It's important for our kids to stack up in this boring world rather than just find out their genius like some of the geniuses of the world had the opportunity to do. So by acknowledging multiple intelligences or at least having the ability to acknowledge them, educators would be able to design more inclusive, diverse, and personalized learning experiences. Would you like your children to have a more personalized learning experience that was nurturing and fueling their genius? or do you just want them to fall in line? It's easier, right?

Starting point is 00:19:04 You just send them to school and you don't hear about it. So it suggests that all children have the potential to excel in different areas. All, all. Nobody's at a disadvantage. Gardner critiques the idea of traditionally looking at IQ tests. That's a big one, arguing that they fail to account for the full range of human capabilities. His theory suggests that IQ is limited. It is.

Starting point is 00:19:28 IQ is limited in its scope and doesn't fully capture. the depth of a person's intelligence. I am all in for that. Number four, emphasis on holistic development. This is cool and this gives us a lot of hope. Theory advocates for a more holistic approach to education and human development, one that nurtures a wide range of cognitive and emotional abilities rather than focusing narrowly on traditional academic subjects. So imagine a school that doesn't test kids on their intelligence levels by giving them questions about the world as society views it, and rather, this is my idea, rather asks them how they view the world and what they find interesting about the world. Imagine what we could find out about our kids

Starting point is 00:20:14 if we started to say, what do you think about that? Isn't that interesting? This would help unveil their unique intelligence, their superpower, much, much early on, and we would be able to start nurturing that natural skill through or throughout their education. This is what they would say, oh, that's J.C. He's an interpersonal. Wouldn't that be cool? Like if I was just rocking my type of intelligence and that I was known for it, I could build my whole career around it. Oh, that's J.C. He's an interpersonal. Oh, that's Lori. She's a naturalistic, right? Be careful. He's going to be able to read your mind and catch you with your bullshit. Right. So you might want to know if somebody's an interpreter. So number five, intelligences can be cultivated. Gardner suggests

Starting point is 00:20:57 that people are not born with a fixed set of intelligences. Rather, these intelligences can be developed through education, experience, and practice. This idea supports the notion that everyone can improve in various areas of intelligence. I just think it would be important to find out what your thing is as well, because you might have a strategy of building on that through other intelligences. I know I'm fascinated in a lot of these. Again, fascinating to have a way to test kids at a young, age and identify their strengths in certain areas and nurture those strengths rather than have them

Starting point is 00:21:32 try to build strengths that they're just not born to do. I like the idea of improving on all areas of intelligence or at least entertaining it and becoming, say, well-rounded. My only concern in this idea is attached to that of cultural bias. I don't think that we live in a world that allows kids to express their genius enough. So cultural bias concept refers to the, you know, formative years where our brain is still developing from birth to age seven. And basically, children are learning things and skill sets that their programmers, their mother, father, teacher, preacher, society, and evolution have decided for them. Very dangerous. That's my only concern. That's why I think that we should be able to explore. I believe this can surmount in a lifetime of

Starting point is 00:22:21 running around in circles, spending 85% of their entire life working, always struggling to get the same goal done like weight loss, nutrition, or becoming financially successful. Maybe it's not the do that you're doing. Maybe it's the who, who you are determines how well what you do works. Missing out on identifying their own superpower that they could do effortlessly, effortlessly. There is something that you can do effortlessly. So my key dragon thoughts, and I my major takeaway is that intelligence is not a one-size-fits-all. And human potential is diverse with many paths to success and fulfillment. The worst thing that we can do to limit human potential is place a human in the cage of society trying to fit in and keep up with the Joneses. Rather,

Starting point is 00:23:10 we should build a system that allows for humans at all phases of their lives to unveil and discover their unique strengths and genius and learn how to leverage those things for better results, better outcomes, and a better life experience. Make sense? You just read a 528 page book in about 30 minutes, 25 minutes. Love and appreciate you. If you learn something today, give it away. That's how it's going to stay. And just as a disclaimer, I really encourage you to get these books and read these books. You don't have to read them in a minute. But if you did want to learn how to get better memory retention, and read faster, well then go to the description of this video and you'll see that I have a link to get Jim Quicks courses cheaper than anywhere in the world. It's just an amazing 20-day course

Starting point is 00:23:58 that will take your reading and improve it by 300%. Give yourself that Christmas present. It's not that expensive. Go look at what it costs right there. And you can also get his memory of retention as well. So love and appreciate you. Have an amazing day. See you next time. Hope you enjoy this new format. Bye-bye now. Makes sense.

Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Making Sense of Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner - Episode 68

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