Smart people.
During dinner this evening, I overheard a conversation at a nearby table. There were four twentysomething people at the table, and their evening's discussion started out with each person's academic experience - each one had at least one master's degree, and one fellow had three.
Since Melba was pretty quiet tonight (I suspect she was also listening in), I followed along with quite a bit of this table's evening chitchat. I can't put my finger on anything specific that was said at the table, but the overall impression I got from eavesdropping was that none of these people were very smart.
Let me qualify that a bit. I'd bet that each of these people outscored me on the SAT and occupy a higher tax bracket than I. They sounded perfectly friendly and were well spoken, but I just couldn't shake the impression that none of them had done much learning in life outside the walls of a school.
The scene got me to thinking about the people I consider smart. A diverse life experience and a desire to learn every day are two things that define the smart people I know. They're the kind of people who can hold their own in an intense debate about politics with a professor, yet are also able to comfortably shoot the shit with the mailman about his family. There are a lot of qualities that go into being smart that are far beyond what tuition will buy.
Well rounded. Skilled in social situations. Well traveled. Street smart. Empathic. Well read. Down to earth.
I'm not really saying anything you don't already know. I can't think of anyone who would disagree with anything I've written here, but the more I think about what it takes to be smart, the more qualifications I add to the list. To be honest, I hadn't given this theory of mine much thought before tonight, but I find it an interesting topic and wanted to share.
I'd love to hear your feedback.
Since Melba was pretty quiet tonight (I suspect she was also listening in), I followed along with quite a bit of this table's evening chitchat. I can't put my finger on anything specific that was said at the table, but the overall impression I got from eavesdropping was that none of these people were very smart.
Let me qualify that a bit. I'd bet that each of these people outscored me on the SAT and occupy a higher tax bracket than I. They sounded perfectly friendly and were well spoken, but I just couldn't shake the impression that none of them had done much learning in life outside the walls of a school.
The scene got me to thinking about the people I consider smart. A diverse life experience and a desire to learn every day are two things that define the smart people I know. They're the kind of people who can hold their own in an intense debate about politics with a professor, yet are also able to comfortably shoot the shit with the mailman about his family. There are a lot of qualities that go into being smart that are far beyond what tuition will buy.
Well rounded. Skilled in social situations. Well traveled. Street smart. Empathic. Well read. Down to earth.
I'm not really saying anything you don't already know. I can't think of anyone who would disagree with anything I've written here, but the more I think about what it takes to be smart, the more qualifications I add to the list. To be honest, I hadn't given this theory of mine much thought before tonight, but I find it an interesting topic and wanted to share.
I'd love to hear your feedback.
Labels: random
posted by steve at 9:32 PM
7 Comments:
that is weird that you were able to tell what their masters were from their conversation. most well educated people i know don't go around talking about it, espcially if they're having dinner with people, you'd think they'd already know about each other's backgrounds. how would you slip it in to conversation? for instance, we've been friends for 6 years now, i've never figured out a way to let it drop that i have a ph.d. in astrophysics. so now you know!
There's a theory of different types of intelligence that I remember learning about when I briefly studied education in school. There's your standard book-smart IQ thing, and then there's EQ -- emotional intelligence. Add to that things like musical intelligence, athletic intelligence, kinetic intelligence ... it's a whole range. I think you're absolutely right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences
This is way over my head. Um, did you hear about that Jennifer wants to get back with Brad, but since Angelina's mom died, she has to back off, and Britney and Paris, and...
Hmmm, interesting thoughts. There seems to be book smart, street smart, life smart, people smart, etc. I'm usually most in awe of people that are street and people smart. Cause if the world went to hell, they'd be the ones that survive. And they tend to be the most interesting to talk to. Not just rattling facts but rather having genuine discussions and philisophical thought. I remember a college buddy who was a bartender and I was in complete awe of how much she seemed to know and how well she could deal with people.
I've been meaning to comment on this post, but I keep getting distracted by shiny things.
In my own experience, some of the smartest people I've ever met never finished high school and some of the dumbest were people I met in law school. Of course, the converse is also true, so even though I have more education than I probably need (or at least more than I use; underachievement! yay!), I don't think it has much to do with intelligence. I don't really put too much stock in the theory of different types of intelligence, but I do think that people can be smart about certain things and dumb about others, and so long as you can end every day not living in a van down by the river, you're probably doing okay.
Smart is as smart does.
Thrudsay!
http://planetzerbert.blogspot.com/
I think that being well-rounded, skilled in social situations, well-traveled, street smart, empathic well read, and down to earth are all very desireable traits. They're all important. Some are more important than others. However, I don't know that I would require all of them for someone I would call "smart." When I think of a smart person, the level of their education usually isn't the biggest factor. It's their ability to catch on to new concepts quickly, learn independently, and work through new situations. It would be great if that same person had all of the aforementioned characteristics, but I don't think they're all wrapped up in the tag "smart"
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