Intelligence vs Application

This post may not be well written. After all, it's something that has been continuously running through my head and morphing for over six months now. It seems I cannot come to a conclusion, yet I am helplessly drawn to the idea that a conclusion exists.

I ask myself, 'Is it possible to intellectually understand something but not be able to apply it?' Surely at face value, the answer to this question must be yes. There are many things like fiscal responsibility, as a single example, that many of us know is a good habit, but struggle to live it. However, this is not what I'm talking about. In this example, there is only an issue of will power.

The best example I can think of obviously comes from my experiences at the poker table. There are many concepts in poker, beginner, novice, advanced, and expert ones. If, theoretically, there were exactly 1,000 concepts in poker, someone could write a book about them even if they did not understand all of the concepts. A foremost expert could write a personal experience of 800 of the 1,000 concepts, then seek out the remaining 200 concepts from other players. There is an inherent problem with this scenario of course and it is two-fold. First, how does one know there are only 1,000 concepts in poker? Second, how will they seek out the remaining 200 concepts if they have no idea they exist?

Because of these problems, you can never know exactly how many concepts in poker there are. However, let's take the scenario further and create two individuals. One is a novice player and understands 200 of the 1,000 concepts. One is an advanced player who understands 550 of the 1,000 concepts. On paper, the advanced player surely knows more about poker than the novice. However, it is possible that the advanced player is not as big of a winner as the novice player. There can be many reasons for this. Out of the 200 concepts understood by the novice, only 50 of those are understood by the advanced player. The 150 unique concepts understood by the novice helps him be a bigger winner. The concepts are readily applicable to his level of play. In other words, his level of understanding meets his level of play.

It's possible the advanced player does not understand some of the concepts necessary to make himself a bigger winner. The natural assumption would be that the concepts understood by the novice player are higher level or more advanced when this might not be the case. From a spiritual standpoint, I find this parallel very fascinating. At the base level, Christianity would be the same for everyone. However, as you walk things begin to change. Some walk faster, some walk slower, some walk closer, some stop walking, some sprint and burn out.

As I grow and mature as a person both in age and in intelligence, things begin to get more and more gray. Just because you can intellectually understand something does not mean you can apply it correctly. I can spend hours explaining a poker concept to someone and they would be able to regurgitate it back to me, but put them on the felt and they have no idea when to use it. Likewise, walking with God can be like that at times. You think you know so much about God that if someone were to give you a notebook to write attributes about Him, you could fill the entire thing. But does that mean you have a standing relationship? It's difficult to say because relationships are volatile and experience-based. It is not empirical, otherwise all husbands could ask their wives to write a notebook of what would make her happy in different scenarios and their marriage would be perfect.

I don't really know why I wrote this post, but it's just something that has been on my mind recently. I'm not sure how to correctly utilize this knowledge or insight. I'm not even sure if this post is more geared towards poker, God, life, or all three. But like the old saying goes, "The more I know, the more I don't know".