This week Silo Rhodes shares his personal reflection on what intelligence really means, and why being understood is more about empathy than being right.

I used to get frustrated when people didn’t “get it.” When they couldn’t see what I saw or grasp what I thought was common sense. It was easy to assume they were missing something like intelligence, awareness, or even care.

But the truth?

They weren’t unintelligent. They just didn’t speak my language, and I wasn’t speaking theirs.

We often mistake intelligence for knowledge. But intelligence isn’t about what you know, it’s what you’re drawn to, what you obsess over, and what brings you alive.

Take me, for example.

I’ve been studying Dutch on and off for almost two years with Duolingo, Pimsleur, Babbel, even downloaded grammar books. And yet, I can barely hold a conversation.

I don’t lack the intelligence or interest, but I haven’t fully immersed myself in it, or gotten obsessed the way I do with the things that truly light me up.

When something aligns with your joy or purpose, you remember it. You embody it, and you become fluent in it fast.

And the things that don’t? They tend to fade. It’s simply because they don’t resonate.

So when someone else can’t follow your thought process, perhaps it’s not about their lack of intelligence. Maybe it’s just not where their obsession lives. They could be fluent in something else, and perhaps you’re the foreign language.

Einstein is credited with saying: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

That quote used to make me feel powerful, but now it makes me feel responsible.

If I can truly understand something deeply, I should be able to meet others where they are and not force them to meet me where I am. It’s not their job to understand me, but it is mine to make myself understandable. That’s what real intelligence is: Patience, translation and curiosity and never superiority.

Perhaps the next time we think someone just “doesn’t get it,” we’ll pause and ask:

Is it their fault… Or is it my delivery?

Intelligence isn’t just about knowing more. It’s loving well enough to make what you know accessible.

Key Takeaway

True intelligence humbles us. It reminds us that every mind is truly brilliant when spoken to in its native frequency.

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Smiley Blue would like to give thanks to Silo Rhodes for contributing this piece. Here’s to much more curiosity, compassion, and connection💙