Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas. — Susan Sontag

Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.

Author: Susan Sontag

Insight: We usually think of intelligence as something cold and technical—like solving puzzles or remembering facts. But Sontag's insight reframes it completely. Intelligence is actually about what you're drawn to, what fascinates you, what ideas make you want to dig deeper. It's taste. And like taste in music or food, it develops through curiosity and exposure, not just raw ability. This explains why you can be brilliant at math but bored by philosophy, or vice versa. Someone with keen taste in ideas doesn't just accept what they're told; they notice gaps, spot connections others miss, and gravitate toward questions worth asking. They develop preferences about which problems matter and which arguments hold water. You see this in people who seem to naturally ask better questions—they've cultivated a feel for what's worth thinking about. The practical shift here is subtle but important: if intelligence is taste, then it's something you can develop, not just something you're born with. You train your preferences. You expose yourself to good thinking and weak thinking until you can feel the difference. Which means the smartest people aren't always the quickest; they're often the ones who've learned to recognize when something smells off, even before they can fully explain why.