I've noticed that people I meet that I think of as intelligent usually had an adult that talked with them intelligently when they were younger.
I think thinking is seen, then emulated, and this emulation needs a bit of coaching.
Yes, once you start reading some of this can happen without someone else available, but ultimately thinking is learned by exposure to good examples of it and iterated practice.
My adoptive parents are a counterexample to this. That or I'm not intelligent but tests and life outcomes would seem to indicate otherwise.
I would definitely agree that an intelligent conversant can positively impact the outcome and as such apply the stimulus to my own child. A lack of this was one of my childhood and early adult life's frustrations.
To me this is one of the main social benefits of platforms like YouTube: you have unlimited access to the greatest "critical thinkers" there are. In times when transmission of knowledge is being heavily challenged ("disrupted") by the constantly changing technological landscape, it is great that you can sit down and enjoy hours of in-depth courses and lectures on all imaginable topics.
Part of it I guess is that the amount of "sensitive connection" is greater than when reading a book -- something about seeing the person establishes a deeper connection.
If I was provocative I'd say there are many online father figures for disoriented people (though it's obviously not all positive, e.g. "PUAs").
I think thinking is seen, then emulated, and this emulation needs a bit of coaching.
Yes, once you start reading some of this can happen without someone else available, but ultimately thinking is learned by exposure to good examples of it and iterated practice.