I have to admit I really like this as I have been living with this philosophy since before I even had my kids. I can't remember where I read this before (not this exact article but on the same topic) but it really hit home with me. In another thread I talked about people not trying as hard and never learning to fail in life as part of their just thinking they are "smart" and not applying themselves as fully as they could because of that fear of failure. I have never arbitrarily told my kids that they were smart when they did something well. In fact I have always told them that being smart in and of itself doesn't matter if you don't use it. Hard work, hard work, hard work is my mantra. This comes from seeing kids I went to school who were absolutely brilliant but then wound up doing nothing in life due to their fear of failure.
I think of intelligence as any talent - it's only as good as the effort you put into sustaining it and making it grow. No it won't go away if you don't work hard, but it isn't going to do you as much good as if you applied yourself. Anyway, I really enjoyed the article!
