Why Do Intelligent People Tend To Be More Selective?

It keeps them sane. Many intelligent people choose to be alone and have fewer friends.

• They rather hang out with themselves than pretend to enjoy a conversation with their old college friends.
• They rather spend a night learning mathematics than out at a party.
• They rather spend time creating value than consuming content.

Intelligent people know what makes them intelligent.

It may be reading physics books, programming, or networking with high-level entrepreneurs. Because they know it works and they love doing it, they’ll continue doing it.

If someone asks them to sacrifice this time, the opportunity cost is too high for them to do so. It’ll take a lot of pull and sometimes a push to move them in another direction.

In turn, don’t expect intelligent people to change.

Expect them to be selective.

4 Traits Of Highly Intelligent People

• They are more likely to be Introvert .First of all: Introversion and IQ are not correlated. What makes me think introverted are more intelligent goes way deeper than that. It is all about creativity: One of the biggest traits of intelligence is creativity but what is creativity really about? It's about connecting the dots. Introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation.
• “Introverts are drawn to the inner world of thought and feeling, extroverts to the external life of people and activities. Introverts focus on the meaning they make of the events swirling around them; extroverts plunge into the events themselves.” - Carl Jung
• “Introversion concentrates the mind on the tasks in hand, and prevents the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” - Hans Eysenck

1. Related books (Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking and The introvert advantage: how to thrive in an extrovert world

• Vocabulary. We naturally perceive someone who uses a high vocabulary as someone who is literate and smart. This is nothing new. Vocabulary is the best predictor of IQ. In other words, lexical knowledge simply put predicts the intelligence of someone simply by the fact that if you read a sentence and understand every single word that is written you can then combine them and create meaning. In the end it really comes down to the impact of the words used and not simply the usage of big and complicated words.
• Choice of conversation.

1. It is much easier to talk about people, you make assumptions about them and draw your own conclusions which can feel very satisfying. However, talking about events and ideas require a minimum of introspection, thought and information.
1. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
2. “Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.” - Henry Thomas Buckle

• Now all of this is kind of obvious and what really interests me is not only the choice of conversation but the way someone engages in a conversation. Let's take for example two people debating. One could be driven by his ego and is simply playing a game to feel better about himself or to prove someone wrong. But a more subtle and way more insightful way of having a debate is when someone is trying to draw conclusions out of the conversation. In other words, he is not having a conversation to simply have a conversation but to acquire additional knowledge and data about the subject.
• An intelligent debate and good conversation type could be illustrated by the ENTP of the MBTI personality theory. It is said that the ENTP will often take a side in a debate that he is not necessarily in accordance with simply to learn more about his own thinking and ideas of the subject. Therefore, the conversation of an intelligent person might revolve around deepening his knowledge and simple small talk might not be interesting to them.
• Openness to experience and curiosity. A nice comparison that I like to have when thinking about openness to experience is simply by visualizing your artery full of shit. If it is full it will clog and get blocked and you might end up having a heart attack. But if your arteries are free and open you will live a much healthier life. It is similar to that but with your mind: Your mind is not clogged with prejudices, ideologies and preconceived paradigms, it is open to unusual and perhaps revolutionary ideas.
• I know that I don’t know.
• Being curious means your mind is active.
• It is a hunger for exploration, curious people move their way through the world and love trying and learning new things
• One big way of identifying a curious person is if he likes listening more than talking.
• Correlation to the Big 5 traits openness to experience is Pearson r = .35

6 Top Hobbies That Will Likely Make You Smarter

There is no guarantee, but these games will help improve your thinking faculty towards strategy.

1. Chess

• Chess is not only a great hobby, but also has been proven to literally make you smarter by exercising both sides of your brain. Studies have shown it to raise levels of IQ in students, stimulate creativity, improve memory, strengthen concentration, prevent Alzheimer's and grow dendrites ( tree-like branches that conduct signals from other neural cells. The bigger they are, the more signals you'll pick up). For more information read here: The Top 10 Health Benefits of Chess

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2. Reading

• As many other answers here have noted, reading is very important in order to increase one's cognitive abilities, creativity and keep that brain young. Not only does it relieve stress, but also stimulates your cerebral cortex by building new synapses and strengthening the existing ones. Reading develops your vocabulary, verbal intelligence and memory.

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3. Writing/Blogging/Answering Quora questions

• This is one of my favourites. Among the usual benefits such as improved ability to focus and express ideas cohesively you also gain fantastic amounts of knowledge. In order to write something useful you will have to come back to hobby number 2. A lot. Doing research and writing everything in your own words helps you to memorize better. Subsequently you learn new and interesting things, which will definitely make you a more interesting and intelligent person. Give it a try and answer a Quora question today :)

4. Exercising

• Scientists all over the world almost unanimously agree that exercising is good for your brain. It reduces stress and also improves blood circulation to the brain. Also researchers in the University of British Columbia discovered that even simple aerobic exercise increases the size of hippocampus - the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. So, whether you run marathons or have never touched weights in your life - now is the time to start exercising regularly. Go for a run or hit the gym. What I especially recommend is exercising early in the morning before work or school. You will start thinking more clearly and have more energy throughout the day.

5. Playing a musical instrument

• As TED educator Anita Collins say "When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout.". Playing an instrument is definitely your go-for hobby to get smarter. Almost every smart and famous person played an instrument: Einstein played piano and the violin, Charles Dickens played the accordion, Steven Spielberg plays clarinet, etc. Personally I play the guitar. It may not make me smarter, but helps me to relax and acts as meditation. That brings me to.

6. Meditation

• Harvard neuroscientist Sara Laza conducted a research to find connection between the mind and body during meditation. Her findings show that subjects, who meditated had thickened parts of brain responsible for: learning, cognition, memory, empathy, compassion and many more: Full article here: Harvard neuroscientist: Meditation not only reduces stress, here’s how it changes your brain