I'm getting suspicious that there is a bit of a blind spot in understanding the world and the usefulness of what we call intelligence, as Noval Yuah Harari says, intelligence is overrated. Look at what we've done to the planet and our environment we have fucked it properly, yet we consider ourselves to be intelligent?

Could it be that intelligence is overrated and discovery of new ideas / thing is underrated? Our egos tell us it's intelligence that makes us special and creative and awesome but maybe most of the special stuff is already there for us to find and we conflate discovery with extrapolation. Maybe knowledge and experience are the "important bits" of intellect.

Example: Einstein didn't really invent anything, he discovered things about the world that blew our mind and changes our lives. Yes he was a great thinker and a courageous soul to go against the grain and he had the balls to be open minded enough to discover new things. We obviously believe Einstein to be intelligent but was he just a great explorer ?

I have a similar attitude towards technological progress, yes we've done amazing things but fundamentally the air we breathe, the water we drink and the beauty we are subjected too when looking at a sunset are taken for granted while we stare at our phones.