Intelligence

      What is intelligence?  Psychologists have tried to measure and answer this for eons but they would be the first to admit that their tests fall short.  Now, I'm not a science guy so I'm not going to develop a test for it, but I will try to define it so that others may extrapolate a test for it.
      As in most terms I define, I will say what it is commonly perceived to be but isn't.  Intelligence is not what you know.  Just because someone can recite Locke, Descartes, Aristotle, Nietzche, or whoever they find interesting doesn't mean that they are intelligent.  The intelligence part comes in the application of what you know.
      I will give two facts that may seem contradictory then tell you where they're not.  Fact 1: Most of the greatest inventions in history were invented or developed by people who didn't go to a prestegious college or didn't have much of an education to begin with.  Fact 2: Owners of large corporations know Fact 1 yet they continually favor hiring those who have degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oxford or other prestigious universities.  Why?  Shouldn't they realize that on average, these are not the people that revolutionize things?
       The answer to this question is that the intelligence doesn't come in the invention, it comes from applying the invention.  The Wright Brothers were brilliant in their discovery of how to make an airplane but the intelligence came from people who took what they did and created supersonic aircrafts.  Now, can you argue that the Wright Brothers showed intelligence by my definition in that they took how a bicycle works and applied it to create flight...yes, that's why I said it was brilliant, but the nameless people who used that knowledge to make a supersonic aircraft should not be dismissed either.
         The part of intelligence that continues to baffle me is how come people who dominate all standard tests of intelligence whether it be straight A's in school, perfect scores on standardized test or high IQ's decide to remove themselves from society.  Into the Wild documents one such person.  What does he see that I don't?  One of my high school teachers was valectadorian at Stamford, he then decided to run across the United States then went back and rode a bike across the United States to figure out what to do with his life.  Like I said, he's a high school teacher...that couldn't have been the answer.  He is the only person I've ever taken writing advice from since I believe everyone else's advise to be bad, but why can't these people function in the real world?  It can only be two possibilities from what I see, A) They realize the fruitlessness of the ratrace of life so remove themselves from society (Into the Wild and my teacher shortly after graduation) or B) They can't apply what they know to better themselves.  If it is B, then they really can't be considered too intelligent.