Book Smart People vs. Street Smart People

Re: Making grades is a skill by itself

In highschool I agree that you can get some marks by sucking up etc...but you don't HAVE to. Some people get good grades and never do those things. I graduated with a 93% average in my final year and I never sucked up...I studied and did my work.
 
Re: Making grades is a skill by itself

i never sucked up, but i am generally a friendly and pleasant girl to be around... unlike a lot of my classmates. so that probably made me stand out a little more, in a good way.
 
Those who do not study/learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

History will teach you only one side of any story...the winning side. The losers are bookmarked and forgotten. They may have considered themselves the 'good guys' or may even have been the good guys, but no-one will ever know.

There are some things that you just cannot learn off the streets, and it has nothing to do with wisdom...it's practical scientific knowledge. You won't find knowledge on cchemistry, physics etc...on the city streets. You're unlikely to learn math there either. Frankly, I think that without at least a base of book-knowledge, you are unlikely to get far in your street-knowledge. Sure, you might know which neighborhoods to avoid, and how to schmooze, or con people into giving you things...how to 'grease the wheels' in your favor...but once they're greased...and that all-important door called opportunity is opened for you, it's book-smarts that's going to keep you there and allow you to use that opportunity and make something of it. There are exceptions...allways will be, but I truly believe that without both types of knowledge...you'll get nowhere.
 
Bish: I see where you're coming from and it's true...but I kinda think this discussion isn't so much actual street smarts and it is The ability to think on one's own and problem solve etc...versus people who can just spew facts from a book and can't thinkon their own...obviously one who can think on their own is a waste without books...but...what about people who can JUST spew memorized facts...how useful are they?
 
MrBishop said:
There are some things that you just cannot learn off the streets, and it has nothing to do with wisdom...it's practical scientific knowledge. You won't find knowledge on cchemistry, physics etc...on the city streets. You're unlikely to learn math there either. Frankly, I think that without at least a base of book-knowledge, you are unlikely to get far in your street-knowledge.
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I just want to point out that the terms wisdom and street smarts should not be used interchangeably. One is a 20th century term for someone who has taken a few hard knocks and learned from them, and the other implies knowledge, experience, intelligence but most of all the innate ability to use all their resources effectively. I would not call a revered tribal elder street-smart, but I would call them wise. Book-knowledge is only one kind of knowledge, and much of the world’s population, historically and contemporarily, does not have access to it. I would not presume to think that because I have read Shakespeare and studied chemistry and biology that I am wiser than someone who knows the medicinal use of every plant in their environment, how to predict the weather from environmental cues, and how to comfort a grieving mother on the loss of her child.

As I have said in a previous post one of the wisest people I know never made it past the seventh grade. Yet at the time I knew him, I would trust him with my deepest fears and insecurities, seek out his opinions and advice. On the flip side, I have met people with master’s degrees who are so ignorant of the realities of the world, sheltered, as they are in their academia, that it is truly frightening.

Ideally, one has both the knowledge and the wisdom to use that knowledge wisely. But as I said, if I had to choose one quality I value most, I would choose wisdom over book-learning hands down.
 
yall are going to like this one. In high school I got tired of studying for vocabalary test. So...I came up with an idea.

I took a clear pen and made a box shape diagram onmicrosoft Word. In that box I typed in size "5" font all of the words and defitions. Then I roled the paper into the clear pen which I could read the info. The box fix this one type of pen they sell at Wal-Mart and I kept doing it over and over and NEVER got caught! Made an A on every vocab test without studying.
 
Haha... You guys just touched on something that is a current dilemma in my life. I very much consider myself well read but also have a thirst for problem solving and self bettering. I hated HS and that would account for me dropping out and a year later going to an alternative school. I graduated with a 1.6 GPA (don't really care) based on the fact I was sick of having to contiuously repeat several things I learned in previous grades ( I mean how many times am I going to have to go over basic multiplication). I never considered myself rebellious when I was younger but looking back I guess I fought the system at my own loss (bad GPA=very hard to get into good college and get scholorships). I fit the standard of the classic not challenged enough in school stereotype. If your going to study something study all sides of it (especially history) that means look at what makes it whole and break it down for yourself into smaller parts of study. I don't have many ppl skills as you might say but thats because alot of times my brain gets in the way of my mouth when I talk. I get too indepth because I like to share knowledge and hope the others can reciprocate but at this point I've only met 2 ppl that were able to do that IRL. Thats why I prefer the BBS systems because you seem to find ppl well versed in the subjects you want to talk about and don't take on the stigma of being a know it all or an anti social bigot. Don't know how on subject this was but I am looking for some responses on how I could go about maybe balancing the equation sort of speak.
 
Nixy said:
Bish: I see where you're coming from and it's true...but I kinda think this discussion isn't so much actual street smarts and it is The ability to think on one's own and problem solve etc...versus people who can just spew facts from a book and can't thinkon their own...obviously one who can think on their own is a waste without books...but...what about people who can JUST spew memorized facts...how useful are they?
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True enough...but the thread title was street-smarts and not wisdom per se. If we're talking about the inate ability towards problem solving, or the ability to look at problems sideways and upside-down in order to find a solution...then by all means, this is a useful skill.... ... but if we're talking just what people have learned off the street or in the home, then we're talking about socially-adapteable individuals. Social butterflies, if you will.

In either case, you need some amount of book-smarts. If you can thin your way around a problem, but don't have any 'knowledge' of the situation, then you may very well find a solution, but nowhere near as quickly as someone who had the book-knowledge easy at hand.

Example: It's mid-winter...it was about 40 below the night before, it's 27 below when you getup. You try to start your car, but it's dead...won't even turn over. So...you call a tow-truck and get a boost, it costs you $40, but you get to work on time. Street-smarts got you to work. A wee bit more street-smarts would've had you saving yourself $40 and a 45min wait for the truck, and you could've woken up a neighbor and gottena boost off of him/her.

Book-smarts...same problem. Your car won't start, you check but the lights weren't turned on all night...so the battery isn't drained. You remember your basic chemistry re: using acids and metal diodes to make electricity...and thus batteries. You recall that a large portion of a battery is water. You deduce that your battery is not drained, but merely frozen. You turn on the car's lights, knowing that the small flow of current that your battery is giving off is enough to light your headlights, and that the flow of electricity will begin defrosting your battery's water. After 2 minutes, your headlights are working at full strength, you place your key in the ignition and Voila...just like magic, your car starts. You've saved yourself $40, the 45 minute wait for a tow-truck, the embarrasment of waking up a neighbour for help and you're early for work.

Now...would someone who had no knowledge of battery-chemistry know to begin a current flowing through it to defrost it? Maybe...but only if someone told them. Myself, I see dozens of cars being boosted daily throughout winter... I've heard of records like "over 3500 cars boosted in Montreal today"...and I think to myself. That's a lot of money. Then I remember my chemistry and go out and start my car once more. :)
 
Re: Making grades is a skill by itself

HomeLAN said:
Well, Cytro is at least learning something. I'm sure he has a prosperous future in either commissioned sales or politics.
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Cytro said:
kept doing it over and over and NEVER got caught! Made an A on every vocab test without studying.
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Politics, then. Commissioned sales folks actually have to produce.
 
I can't claim to be particularly wise (although I have been around the block a coupla times). I do have a coupla uni degrees (which I never use) and I have read a book or two in me life (and some of them never had Superman on the cover!).

When it comes to real life I guess it's pretty much horses for course......wisdom only comes from experience......so the guy locked away in perpetual study prolly has as much wisdom as the ex soldier who lived rough for a coupla years, married a dozen times and has six kids? :shrug: ..... they both have life skills, just different chosen lives.

As to who has the most "smarts" ....... it's all about adaptability innit? A person who'll pass on an experience because it is "boring", "stupid", "too difficult" or "unworthy" of him/her will never grow beyond what they already are.

Something I do sometimes wonder about tho'.......is who has it the easiest? I've never met a smart person who didn't worry about bills, money, the law, state of the world........but I've met a million knuckledraggers who never worry about anything more complicated than where their next bucket of fried chicken and a beer is coming from........and it's the knuckledraggers with their carefree attitude that seem to get through life the easiest (if yer idea of life is a small rented shack, an ugly spouse and 13 kids that is).........so which is better? To be smart and concerned or thick and oblivious?
 
Oz said:
Something I do sometimes wonder about tho'.......is who has it the easiest? I've never met a smart person who didn't worry about bills, money, the law, state of the world........but I've met a million knuckledraggers who never worry about anything more complicated than where their next bucket of fried chicken and a beer is coming from........and it's the knuckledraggers with their carefree attitude that seem to get through life the easiest (if yer idea of life is a small rented shack, an ugly spouse and 13 kids that is).........so which is better? To be smart and concerned or thick and oblivious?
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My question exactly... :D I have been so suprised at how ppl could care less at how things are going around them even if they indirectly effect them. And yet I know how much of my thoughts could be elsewhere if I desired them to be and simpler much simpler exisistance IMHO!
 
MrBishop said:
Those who do not study/learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

History will teach you only one side of any story...the winning side. The losers are bookmarked and forgotten. They may have considered themselves the 'good guys' or may even have been the good guys, but no-one will ever know.

There are some things that you just cannot learn off the streets, and it has nothing to do with wisdom...it's practical scientific knowledge. You won't find knowledge on cchemistry, physics etc...on the city streets. You're unlikely to learn math there either. Frankly, I think that without at least a base of book-knowledge, you are unlikely to get far in your street-knowledge. Sure, you might know which neighborhoods to avoid, and how to schmooze, or con people into giving you things...how to 'grease the wheels' in your favor...but once they're greased...and that all-important door called opportunity is opened for you, it's book-smarts that's going to keep you there and allow you to use that opportunity and make something of it. There are exceptions...allways will be, but I truly believe that without both types of knowledge...you'll get nowhere.
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good thinking there-never knew you were our chemistry professor... :winkkiss:
 
Cytro said:
My uncle has a master’s degree in American History and a bachelor in western civilization. As I was growing up he trained me like a robot to know all history....
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Is your uncles name Newton by any chance?
 
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