Hey there,

Friendly reminder - you’re doing awesome, even if you think otherwise.

If you feel low, just remember this:
Someone brought the NFT for this Nyan cat meme for $600k (4.5 Crores INR)
Nyan cat, free for everyone to use and share. Except for the person who brought the NFT for it

Now with this $600k worth of gif in our blogletter. Let’s focus on some intelligence fronts so we don’t get caught up in similar traps.

Mind your Quotients: IQ, EQ, SQ, CQ, AQ

The Vocabulary that has emerged over the years for individual competencies with a range of “quotients”. While the following first one is the most popular and has been around for over a century, we’ve lately collected multiple other dimensions to factor in.

IQ or Intelligence Quotient (and Mensa)

The metric of Brilliance. IQ signifies mental potential and academic ability. Back in 1912, a German psychologist, William Stern, came up with the formula “ratio of mental age to chronological age times 100”, which remains the same. Mental age is determined by going through an approved IQ test, and chronological age is determined by asking your parents.

Now what is Mensa?
In short: Community of the smarties. Mensa, which means ‘table’ in Latin, is a society that recognizes individuals whose IQ belongs to the top 2% of the population, and over time, Mensa entry has become the highest bar for proving your intelligence. (I’m not a part of it, but it’d be super awesome to find out if you belong to the community already. Let me know).

EQ or Emotional Quotient

You’ve seen them: The people who appear to be cool as a cucumber on deadline. Those who handle awkward family dinners with grace. The ones that get where you’re coming from, without you having to say a lot.

That’s because they may possess a certain skill set in spades — emotional intelligence.

Sometime in 1990, John D Mayer and Peter Salovey created a framework for emotional intelligence. Daniel Goleman then championed the concept in his 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence.

He referenced 5 components essential for a good EQ:
Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy, Social skills.

I’m not covering all of that here. Go read his book in case you are interested in knowing more. (Or go through the sources for this page mentioned at the bottom for summaries)

SQ or Spiritual Quotient

Term coined after your birth (in 2001) as ‘our most fundamental intelligence’. SQ is beyond cognitive and emotional skills, it is what we use to develop our capacity for meaning, vision, and value. It allows us to dream and to strive. This underlies the things we believe in and the actions that we take. Building a foundation of trust and happiness is now considered important for organizational as well as individual success.

CQ or Curiosity Quotient

Take my words on this one: You, reading this newsletter, have a pretty good score for CQ. People like you have minds that are ever hungry and are always learning, seeking, and sharing new knowledge. Irrespective of age, gender, or cultural background. CQ is what makes directors and writers think through and plot quirky movies and stories that we love.
A 2014 Harvard Business Review article introduced the concept of a Curiosity Quotient (CQ).

Individuals with higher CQ are more desirable in education systems and workplaces because they are inquisitive and open to new experiences, more tolerant of ambiguity, and therefore capable of producing simple yet nuanced solutions to complex problems.

AQ or Adaptability Quotient

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

An Adaptability Quotient (AQ) measures someone’s ability to adapt. This ability to adapt might include how people handle change, learn from mistakes, overcome challenges, and adjust in real-time.
Effectively the metric to measure your adaptiveness to the only constant there is - Change.

Welp, that’s all for this issue. 5 metrics to measure yourself, should you be interested in knowing and exploring more (Hint: tickling your CQ), you can check out the sources below from where I gathered all this information for you.

This is a fairly simple take on this psychology topic, and I really hope you like it. If you aren’t subscribed to the newsletter, I highly recommend doing it - no spam, pure knowledge.

Tschüss!

Sources: Psychcentral, Psychreg, Stoodnt, Hult, Workpatterns