Intelligence is often conflated with _"cached knowledge."_

A conversation with an expert is one data point at one point.

Evaluating intelligence requires collecting many data points over a sufficient time horizon, while also observing its rate of change.

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Have you ever spoken to expert? Sometime who has been deep in the weeds on one topic for 20 years?

If it's a topic you know nothing about, you walk away thinking: _"That individual is a genius."_

They might be. But, you also have to understand the disparity between how much they know about they topic, and how much exposure you've had to it.

In addition, being able to speaking about a topic clearly and eloquently requires one of two things:

1. A lot of preparation
2. The topic being your primary day-to-day function

There are exceptions, but I'd argue they're few and far in between.

What's the takeaway? Don't make immediate judgements of someone on the spot. This goes both ways.

First impressions are a skill, and require the right context and topic.