My objection is that people will claim to be "intelligent" and then point to an IQ or SAT test score as proof of that. All the IQ test score is evidence of is how well one scores on IQ tests. It does not measure intelligence. Intelligence is too complex a phenomenom to reduce to a single measure like that.

Now, IQ test scores may be one indicator of a certain kind of intelligence, but they do not quantify intellingence. Other indicators also exist (musical skill, mathematical skill, etc). The anecdotes of acknowledged "geniuses" who scored poorly on tests or did poorly in school are legion almost to the point where some claim poor test scores is a sign of genius.

To have a discussion on "what intelligent people do" presupposes an independent standard of intelligence. I argue that such a standard does not exist, especially in the form of test scores. This is not to say that one cannot recognize that one person is more skilled or knowledgable than another. It is to say that one cannot look at a test score or any other measure and say that it will predict certain behaviors and merit. Although anecdote isn't the plural of data, the cases of "intelligent" people doing "stupid" things such as discussed above indicate what I'm saying.

As to my standard, it's based on the old Potter Stewart standard for pornography. "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."

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"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli