system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I believe that a person's natural intelligence defines only their minimum potential and that intelligence can be attained through hard work. CMV.

The general consensus on this website seems to be that a person's intelligence can be likened to the RAM of a computer, representing the raw processing power the system is capable of, and that knowledge is like the data you'd store on the harddrive. In my own opinion, there seems to be somewhat of a bias though, as the majority of Reddit's community is relatively young and the 'smart but lazy' type (which would explain the relative importance placed on factors entirely outside of your control). 

The computer analogy makes a sound point, but I believe it's simply not right. There are no studies to my knowledge which prove this either way, however anecdotally, I have witnessed many people do a complete 180 even after having been condemned as unintelligent. All throughout school I was incredibly average at math (and I mean average). I quickly decided I just didnt have that natural gift that some did. Now, math is typically regarded as being one of those things you cant rote learn or memorize, which is entirely true. After doing copious textbook exercises and practice papers though, I finally found myself at the point where I was confident with my understanding of math and not only in the 'knowledge' sense. New concepts came to me more easily and I observed an overall increase in my problem solving and pattern recognition abilities (hey look, the two things most emphasised in an IQ test).

If you walk into a gym, there will be skinny guys who can just 'never seem to put on muscle' and the 6'5 dudes natually built like fridges.  However, time and again we see these skinny guys stick it out and eventually reap the rewards (even Arnold was small when he started out). If we were to apply the aforementioned logic to this scenario, we would witness the same defeated attitude with the skinny dude deciding he'd 'never get bigger', y'know, like how a computer's RAM stays fixed?

Being from an Eastern background where a solid work ethic is valued above all other things, I think a person who is not as naturally gifted, but works incredibly hard to reach the same end goals certainly comes out a more satisfied, resilient, wiser and 'snarter' person than the naturally gifted person. This typical American high school SAT student attitude where studying is undervalued because you can still do well without it is extremely unhealthy and discourages students from reaching their full potential.

But in the end, is intelligence really defined by the score you'd get on an IQ test anyway,  or is it the way in which you use your knowledge to benefit society?

TL;DR: Some westerners have some unhealthy and untrue misconceptions about education and intelligence which are holding back the 'less natually gifted' children.
gpt
A counter point might be that a persons natural intelligence represents their maximum potential, and hard work is what progress people towards achieving it. As evidence you can look to the highest achievers in science. Not everyone can become an Einstein, Hawking, Newton, Tesla etc. Some people are simply smarter/better than others in certain fields.