The Intelligence That Actually Matters

The Intelligence That Actually Matters

*Based on the inaugural class of Turma Samba Śiva, with Jonas Masetti*

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There's a provocation Jonas makes in the inaugural class of Turma Samba Śiva that really got to me: a person can make 100 million reais in a single day in the financial market, but needs medication to sleep. Can they be called intelligent?

The short answer is: no. At least not in the way that matters.

Three types of intelligence

Jonas describes three types of intelligence, each deeper than the last.

Logical intelligence is the one we value most in the world. It's what builds rockets, operates computers, performs complex calculations. But someone might be able to build an atomic bomb and yet be unable to sit at the dinner table with their family and be happy. Who's more intelligent — that person, or someone who can't operate a computer but lives well?

If you're not using your intelligence to live well, it's not intelligence. It's stupidity with a diploma.

Then comes emotional intelligence — the ability to walk into a room and sense what people are going through. To understand that the world isn't black and white, that people carry pain they can't express. This intelligence is superior to logic, because without it, you can't engage with the complexity of being human.

And there's a third, which Jonas says is the highest of all: metacognition. The mind's ability to see that what it's thinking is wrong. To rewrite itself.

The sleepwalker and the cheese

To illustrate, he tells a story that's both absurd and brilliant. A guy gets a block of cheese, puts it in the fridge of his shared apartment. Next day, the cheese is half gone. He's furious. Fights with everyone, complains, sets up a hidden camera above the fridge. Guess what? He was a sleepwalker. He was eating his own cheese.

The metaphor is perfect: when does a sleepwalker catch themselves eating cheese? Never. In the same way, when we're "asleep" — on autopilot, without sel