- Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Plume Books (Oct 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0452279062
- ISBN-13: 978-0452279063
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.6 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 136,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
One of the foremost experts in the field shows why creative and practical intelligence, not IQ, are the best predictors of success in life--in a far-ranging book that is certain to be widely debated.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Sternberg offers some thought provoking ideas in a very readable form which can be creatively engaged with by teachers and others to contribute to their development of their educational practice, provision and theory. I read it when it first came out and continue to dip into it periodically.
0 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Not convincing. Repetitive.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
17 reviews
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Insights and Padding
12 Jun 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is a strange hybrid: part informal discussion of flaws in intelligence testing, part autobiography, part self-help manual. Many of Professor Sternberg's criticisms of IQ testing are right on target, but his argument is diffuse and interlarded with the same personal anecdotes told over and over. We hear a great deal about his own poor IQ scores in elementary school, how his son Seth exhibits creative intelligence, how his talented grad students' careers were hobbled by poor test scores. It concludes with his definition of true intelligence (what he calls "successful intelligence"), which is basically a catch-all category for common sense or street smarts (what Howard Gardner calls "interpersonal intelligence") and self-discipline. The traits of successful intelligence turn out to be rather obvious: Successfully intelligent people know when to perservere; successfully intelligent people seek to surmount personal difficulties; successfully intelligent people are self-confident but not cocky and can delay gratification in order to achieve long-term goals; etc., etc. All very true, and all very old.
Still, the book has enough interesting remarks on the history and errors of intelligence testing to make it worth reading. If Professor Sternberg had organized the book a little better and eliminated some of the redundancies, I would have given it four or five stars. As it is, I give it three.
38 of 45 people found the following review helpful
IQ isn't everything...but you knew that already, didn't you?
15 July 1997
Format:Paperback
Much more informed and lucid than "other success" books on the market. Sternberg balances his own experiences with concise research into the field of human achievement. Much of what he says comes across as familiar, i.e. the "academically average " grad student who amazes her professors with an abundance of job offers (apparently, the author implies, due to her "practical intelligence" skills).
Nevertheless, in an age where analytical IQ is deemed more important than creative and practical skills, Sternberg's book serves as an inspiring reminder
Nevertheless, in an age where analytical IQ is deemed more important than creative and practical skills, Sternberg's book serves as an inspiring reminder
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Only fair, not as good as Sternberg's "The Triarchic Mind"
30 Oct 2006
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Quite a few years ago - at least ten - I read another book by Yale pyschologist Robert Sternberg on intelligence, entitled "The Triarchic Mind". It was excellent, as he criticized standard IQ testing and put forth his own broader definition of intelligence, which he defined as "mental self-management."
So I was looking forward to this follow-up book, "Successful Intelligence." Unfortunately it was not near as good as his first book.
The book is too long - it's almost as if his publisher told him to flesh it out with discussion of the defects of intelligence tests and personal anecdotes from his own life and that of his children. There are too many of these analyses and anecdotes. He could have cut the book by at least a third. And at times the book is more of a self-help manual - focus on goals, be persistent, identify problems. As another reviewer on Amazon said, perhaps he should have titled the book "Successful Abilities."
Certainly his theory that there are three components of intelligence - the analytic, the creative, and the practical makes lots of sense. And too much emphasis may be put on the analytic element, because it is most easily tested in so-called intelligence tests. Sternberg makes a good case for that, showing that there is not much correlation between the ability to score highly on these types of tests, and ultimate success in business and professional areas (some correlation, but it's pretty underwhelming).
All in all, if you are interested in a good book on intelligence, I recommend Sternberg's first book "The Triarchic Mind" and give this one a miss.
So I was looking forward to this follow-up book, "Successful Intelligence." Unfortunately it was not near as good as his first book.
The book is too long - it's almost as if his publisher told him to flesh it out with discussion of the defects of intelligence tests and personal anecdotes from his own life and that of his children. There are too many of these analyses and anecdotes. He could have cut the book by at least a third. And at times the book is more of a self-help manual - focus on goals, be persistent, identify problems. As another reviewer on Amazon said, perhaps he should have titled the book "Successful Abilities."
Certainly his theory that there are three components of intelligence - the analytic, the creative, and the practical makes lots of sense. And too much emphasis may be put on the analytic element, because it is most easily tested in so-called intelligence tests. Sternberg makes a good case for that, showing that there is not much correlation between the ability to score highly on these types of tests, and ultimate success in business and professional areas (some correlation, but it's pretty underwhelming).
All in all, if you are interested in a good book on intelligence, I recommend Sternberg's first book "The Triarchic Mind" and give this one a miss.
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