Critical Skills for Humanity: Existential Intelligence

Why AI Struggles with Big Picture Thinking

Of all the skills, values, and mindsets that we need in order to thrive in the future, perhaps the most underrated and unrecognized one is existential intelligence.

Existential intelligence is the intelligence of big picture thinking. People with existential intelligence tend to be critical thinkers who are unafraid to challenge the norm. It’s the capacity to pose and reflect on the big questions of life: who are we, where do we come from, where are we headed, what is our place in the universe, why do we exist at all, what, indeed, is existence?

These are individuals who have the ability to use metacognition (thinking about thinking, or being aware of ones awareness), ask the big questions and seek answers to them. Existential thinkers typically have the ability to keep the big picture in mind even when they’re caught in the grunt of day-to-day work, which is why a lot of successful entrepreneurs tend to score high on this type of intelligence. They tend to be driven by purpose and contributions larger than their immediate surroundings.

In my substack, I’ll explore a series of critical survival skills in the AI era over the next 8 weeks, starting with Existential Intelligence.

Howard Gardner & Multiple Intelligences

Existential intelligence was first introduced by education expert Howard Gardner, who coined the theory of Multiple Intelligences.

According to Gardner, individuals have varying degrees of intelligence that documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways. Gardner proposed that people may possess 7 different types of intelligence: Logical/Mathematical, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalist, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. At the time, Gardner also toyed with the idea of including existential/spiritual intelligence.

In theory, this is a pretty remarkable discovery. For the longest time, our society has upheld institutions that value only one kind of intelligence (logical-mathematical), meaning that those who fall short this area but excel in…