Competence is valuable when operating from the known. Intelligence is valuable when operating from the unknown.

Competence is useful to effectively solve a known problem. Intelligence is necessary for navigating an unknown terrain.

Life is an unknown terrain. Every moment, even right now, the future is completely unknown.

Treating an unknown terrain as a known problem forces the application of competence, precisely where intelligence is required. This is why life begins to look like a permanent series of problems to face year after year.

Accessing intelligence belongs to a completely different domain than applying competence.

The system trains for competence. Education is designed to tackle specific sets of problems. But life is not a set of problems – although it is possible to experience it as such. Life is a phenomenon of possibilities to be experienced.

When this distinction is misunderstood, the unknown triggers a desperate reflex:

“Tell me what to do, and how to do it.”

This mistakenly assumes the missing ingredient is competence.

To simply notice what is, without asking what to do or how to do it, requires intelligence.

You have the freedom to live life primarily through competence without intelligence. If you do, life will appear to you as a permanent series of problems to solve.

You also have the freedom to access intelligence and have your competence be subservient to it. In which case, life will simply be an experience to be lived.

You are already exercising this freedom right now.