I concluded that what we call ‘intelligence’ is as much about virtues such as honesty, integrity, and bravery, as it is about ‘raw intellect’.
Nabeel S. Qureshi - How To Understand Things
One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can.
Richard Hamming - You and Your Research
Intellectual self confidence is the idea that what is needed to learn is the belief that you are capable of learning.
Learning any skill is hard for most of us - what we need to get through the difficult moments is a combination of both academic guidance and self-belief. Both are required, and one can’t replace the other.
Somone who speaks three languages is likely to be able to learn a fourth.
Part of their ability to pick up a fourth language is that they understand and use concepts about language, like the idea of a noun or verb.
But part of their ability is due to their self belief, that when things get tough, that if they keep going they are good enough to get there.
Self belief is the best way to move through the uncomfortable moments - if we know we can, then the suffering of learning is worth it.
If on the other hand, we lack self-belief, then the real, difficult challenges of learning will not be worth it. We would instead succumb to the idea that we couldn’t do it anyway, so shouldn’t bother.
We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts.
Daniel Golman - Emotional Intelligence.
No amount of academic guidance will make up for a lack of self-belief.
To make sure that as many kids learn as much as possible, we should make sure that their own self-belief is never a limiting factor.