If you enjoy these 7 hobbies, you’re probably smarter than you realize

Are you a mastermind?

Sometimes, it’s hard to know if you’re a really clever person when you don’t have any real way to measure your intelligence.

This is especially true if you live in a community that doesn’t place a lot of value on raw intelligence.

Sure, you could go do an IQ test, but that costs money, and the results aren’t always as clear and fair as you might think.

So is there another way to figure out if you’re actually quite bright?

If you feel that might be the case, you can take a look at the activities you like to engage in, and you’ll probably find they’re very different from what most other people around you are into.

In fact, if you enjoy these seven hobbies, you’re probably smarter than you realize.

1) Reading

There’s been a long debate surrounding the question of whether reading makes you smarter or if being smarter makes you read.

However, this twin study from 2014 found that one twin who reads more than the other will be predicted to do well on general intelligence tests and be able to read better.

The more you read, the better you can read. Makes sense.

But what about general intelligence?

It seems that reading is an important way to build crystallized intelligence, the things that you learn and remember. 

But does it also improve fluid intelligence or your ability to solve new problems and deal with new information? This is still up for debate.

It may be that reading improves fluid intelligence because you get to approach lots of new situations that you wouldn’t otherwise get exposed to in your everyday life, like sci-fi worlds or murder mysteries.

Or it may be that people with more fluid intelligence are better at reading and enjoy it more because they can follow new plots and ideas more easily.

In the end, we know that reading is linked with intelligence, so if you love to read, you’re probably smarter than you think.

2) Solving puzzles and riddles

If puzzles and riddles delight you, that’s probably because you’re a pretty clever person who can actually work them out.

At least some of the time!

To solve puzzles, you normally have to be logical and methodical. You also need to have patience to work through solutions to find out which can be eliminated and which could be correct.

Most people out there find this kind of thinking tiresome and even headache-inducing, just like when you try to get your computer to do too many tasks at once, and it freezes up.

Riddles are a little bit different.

A riddle is meant to have a tricky solution, and to find it; you have to be good at tangential thinking – so-called “thinking outside the box”.

Most often, riddles rely on wordplay and misdirection, so you need to have great verbal reasoning skills to get to the answer.

Even if you don’t get them right, attempting riddles and puzzles can be fun for some people because they represent intellectual challenges.

If you’re one of these people who enjoys this hobby, it’s probably because you’re clever. You might want to think about joining Mensa and checking out their daily puzzles.

3) Studying for fun

Did you just read that right? Did I really write “studying for fun”!?

I did, and there’s a good reason why.

Really intelligent people have an inherent curiosity that is like a thirst that can’t be quenched.

School systems typically force everyone to learn the same things because they don’t have the time and human resources to follow every student’s individual curiosities.

Luckily for you, there’s a near-infinite wealth of information on the Internet that you can use to sate your intellectual appetites. 

It’s easy to find cursory information on anything through YouTube videos and Wikipedia pages. Once your curiosity is hooked, you can do much deeper dives by looking at media reports, historical explanations, and even academic papers.

I like to go into thrift stores and second-hand book shops to find old textbooks that normally sell for a pittance. I can pick up volumes about organic chemistry and child psychology to keep on my bedside table when I don’t feel like staring at a screen anymore.

And why not keep learning?

If you’re going to spend time reading or watching videos anyway, why not learn something from them?

4) Writing

Writing is for geniuses!

What, are you accusing me of bias just because I’m a writer?

Look for yourself, then. This article shows a clear link between intelligence and writing.

But it does beg the question, what kind of intelligence are we talking about here?

According to the study, people who have great grammatical competence also have high levels of verbal-linguistic intelligence. In other words, people who know the best words are good at writing.

OK, that should come as no surprise.

Most people write out of obligation. They have to text their friends and family, and they need to prepare reports for work. But few people actually write as a hobby.

Keeping a journal or diary was a trend that lasted for hundreds of years, though it was really only highly educated people who did this most of the time. But eventually, it became common as public education became so widespread.

Journaling is a great tool for self-reflection and processing one’s own thoughts and questions about the world.

A pursuit that’s even more intellectually impressive is actual creative writing. This hobby takes a lot of different intelligences working together to create something new.

You need to use butterfly intelligence to flit between projects and be able to stop and start what you’re doing easily.

You might need emotive intelligence to be able to get feelings across well in your writing.

And you’ll likely need sorting intelligence to be able to efficiently look up facts and information to support your writing without wasting time with anything irrelevant.

If you like to write as a hobby, you probably possess more than a few of these different intelligences.

5) Playing an instrument

Learning to play a musical instrument is a hobby that takes parts of your brain that you might not use a lot for other things in your daily life.

For all instruments, you need some eye-hand or even eye-mouth coordination to pay successfully.

You need to think about rhythm and timing in order to play along with songs.

Hitting the correct notes at the right times requires great auditory processing, especially if you’re playing multiple notes at once, like on the guitar and piano.

Reading music means you have to learn a whole other writing system, which isn’t easy for everyone.

And if you can compose your own songs or improvise, you need to be able to harness creativity.

In other words, playing a musical instrument is no cakewalk, and if you can do it, that might be a sign that you’re more intelligent than you think.

6) Learning languages

While music is like a language unto itself, learning real spoken human languages can also be a big challenge.

Some languages are similar enough that they don’t take too much extra memory to get a handle on. If you know French, you’ll probably find Spanish a breeze.

But try Mongolian or Mayan, and you’ll be in for a bigger challenge.

Languages that have distinct sounds and absolutely no historical connections to your own can be a whole new ballgame.

And if you need to also learn a new writing system to become literate in a different language, your brain gets an even bigger workout.

7) Meditation

I know that some meditation zealots out there will say that it’s not a hobby but a practice.

But since we’re talking about intellectual hobbies anyway, I think meditation can still fit into our list.

What is meditation, anyway?

I think most people would argue that it’s an exercise that goes beyond intellect and analytical thinking. Perhaps we can call it “meta-intellectual”.

While meditation practices vary widely, most emphasize the ability to quiet the analytical parts of your mind (the so-called “monkey mind”) and observe the inner workings of your body and mind instead.

Watching as your body breathes without trying to control that breathing is a difficult pursuit in and of itself. This requires practice, patience, and stillness to succeed.

It’s almost as if the conscious mind becomes able to relinquish control over what to focus on and instead observes the unconscious mind and its workings.

Tough stuff.

If you enjoy meditation, it may be because you have the mind power to be able to shut off your mind and just be.

Final thoughts

If you enjoy these seven hobbies, you’re probably smarter than you realize.

Each one uses a lot more brain power than just chilling on the sofa watching Netflix or posting on social media. These activities are challenging and require focus, logic, creativity, and all-round smarts.

So if this is how you like to party, you’re probably a pretty bright cookie!