Nova Daily - 17 May 2025: Practical intelligence
Hi!
We don't fail meekly through lack of effort or resolve. We don't fail stupidly through lack of preparation, impatience or impetuousness. When we do fail, we fail intelligently and majestically. There'll be honour and glory in such a failure, and certainly no shame in any form.
- Iain Abernethy, "10 things the martial arts should have taught you about life."
Practical intelligence
When Harry Potter takes his very first flying lesson, their flying teacher Madam Hooch tells them to stand next to a broom, stick their right hand over it and summon it into their hands by saying "Up!" Harry's broom obliges right away. Although the book doesn't specify, we can see in the movie that Malfoy's broom also does.
Two Gryffindors are having notorious problems conveying to their broomsticks that it was to obey them. One of them is Neville, who has one of the greatest character arcs of the entire Harry Potter series: he starts out as an insecure, forgetful and subnormally talented lad who is tyrannized by his grandmother who never considers him to be quite as heroic as his father.
Neville is the constant target of bullying throughout the first installments of the series, with Pansy Parkinson calling him a "fat little crybaby" in this exact first flying lesson. Throughout the story of seven years at Hogwarts, Neville finds his passion for herbology, finds his motivation in his hatred towards the death-eaters, and with the help of his peers and McGonagall, grows up to be the Gryffindor that his grandmother no longer frowns upon: a true hero who defies the Death Eaters, is unintimidated by the Dark Lord, and plays a crucial role in making sure that Voldemort is defeated in the end.
The other Gryffindor who has troubles with getting her broom to obey is Hermione Granger. Not yet the friend of Harry and Ron that she'd become later that year, she was critically lacking in confidence. She had only her books for friends, and she discovered that flying is exactly one of those skills that you simply can't learn from books alone. This scene was beautifully portrayed in the movie.
We never learn how well she takes this in the moment, but at the end of Philosopher's Stone she's learned and accepted the lesson that can be taken from this excerpt. Upon Harry telling her that he's not as good as her, she responds with the following:
“Me!” said Hermione. “Books! And cleverness! There are more important
things — friendship and bravery and — oh Harry — be careful!”
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, "Through the Trapdoor"
I fully agree with Hermione. There are more important things than just what you can learn from books. Knowledge in itself is abstract, neutral and meaningless. Hermione realised very quickly that just being booked up to the max isn't enough. What matters, and why you learn, is to equip yourself with skills that enable you to better tackle the problems that you'll face in life.
My test
I've always had a reputation of being some sort of socially awkward study-nerd. No idea why. But even though I should be able to do my tests well, throughout my personal history I've suffered from quite some backlash. I was often able to get results quickly without much effort, which set a precedent for a lot of laziness. I have known for a very long time that my intelligence and cleverness have been a hindrance for developing any work ethic and discipline, but that never prompted me to take action towards resolving this issue. I've always been notoriously lazy, and in terms of my own progress I've suffered from serious episodes of complete stagnation because of it.
All the lessons are out there.
The knowledge is all there.
But I had to apply what I learned.
I needed to work on my crafts.
I had to start taking action.
Nobody else is going to do it for me.
Embarking on a blogging journey is my way to address this issue for my chess and writing. So, chess coach Andras Toth, if you ever read this: I happily disagree with you and proclaim that my writing analyses of my own games is chess-wise one of the best ways to spend my time that I've ever done.
The above quote should serve as a reminder. On Thursday I had a test. It's been the sixth time that I had to take it. For each of the first five failed attempts to pass my test, I showed up insufficiently prepared. I had crammed all my study work into the last two days. There were too many uncertainties in my answers, enough wrong answers in the test, and failure was the logical result that I deserved. I failed stupidly because of dumb planning, lack of preparation, and possibly also a dose of nervousness going in.
This time, however, my preparation was much more comprehensive, consistent, and complete. I've been sitting down to do my preparation work for well over two weeks in advance. I worked for it almost every day, for several hours a day, and never for more than two hours on end. No studying late into the night before, but consistent effort throughout the productive hours of the day. I spread out my work, I accumulated enough knowledge and experience, and I felt like I was as ready as I could be. This should go right.
The most immediate result of my work and the confidence it had given me is that I turned up at the test without any anxiety. I finished well within the allotted time, and there were plenty of minutes left to go over the test and check all my answers for one more time. I even managed to correct a clumsy mistake I made along the way. When I counted the number of questions that I wasn't 100% certain about, I already knew that I did it. And I was right: I had passed with flying colours. It wasn't a perfect test, but it was more than good enough.
It took me five stupid failures to get there, but I got there in the end.
Chess today
My chess today was absolutely dreadful, and I lost points in both bullet and blitz. The following game is the clearest indication of how bad things became today.
I'm glad that this variation came up, because it forces me to study it. One variation to study a little as it came up in one of my blitz games today is what happened in the 3.Nf3 QGD.
I think that this suffices for today. Tomorrow I might write a shorter end-of-the-week post as I'll be away for most of the day.
Peace,
Nova Stone
