Hustle & Blog

Smart or Intelligent

I was privileged to attend college full time as a freshman on campus. During this exciting time in my life, I had the pleasure of meeting many interesting people from many different diverse backgrounds. In our transformation process from boys to men, we would sit and discuss aspects of our lives.

During one of these discussions (one of the few that I can recall) I remember a friend of mine explaining the cause of his mediocre scholastic achievement. He announced to the group, that he was very smart, however, he didn’t try or work hard to receive high marks. Another friend, chimed in shortly thereafter and said “Is that being smart?”

I often think about this short conversation, and the depthness of my friends challenging remarks. Mainly because I’ve met many individuals whom I consider smarter than myself, however, lacking in the area of application. Many of us have come across similar people that wow us with their natural ability to understand complex subjects and/or speak with convincing arguments. These people cause us to sometimes challenge them from a feeling of inferiority. Don’t let them tout their outstanding education pedigree. I guarantee that in a group setting, afterwards, there would be a comment, in which the intent is to humanize the gifted pontifcator.

While reflecting on this over time, I have come to understand that there is a difference between being smart, and being intelligent. Though these two words can sometimes have overlapping meanings, their definition and life application are indeed uncorrelated.

Being smart is defined as “having sharp quick thought”. This cognitive ability allows a person to simply get it. An example would be if I were to begin a piano class with this group of beginners and teach basic chords and scales for two weeks. At the end, there would be a few individuals who will already show superior mastery of the concepts, while most of the group would struggle to get it.

Being smart has its benefits. In the work force, I am often in meetings with smart people, who seem to speed the pace of conversation. While my brain is trying to arrive at a basic understanding of what we’re meeting about, these genetically morphed co workers of mine are moving on to the next matter. If they have decent communication skills, they can even leverage their wit to become managers of the group or team. Please don’t invite anyone you suspect as being smart to our Toastmaster’s club meetings.

However, even though a smart person is blessed with these things, he or she may not at times, be able to handle a little frustration, as in my friends case. I have wondered, like my other friend, why would this person, who is soooo smart, choose to make the decision of not doing homework or studying to receive the high marks that he deserves? Aren’t we in school to simply do this?

The answer is that intelligence is different. Intelligence involves “the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience”.

People that are intelligent see the big picture, and think, this education is costing someone tens of thousands of dollars. I’m privileged to be here. I’m not the smartest guy in the room, but let me work to learn, because everyone is telling me that we live in an information society.

This is not quantum theory. This analysis would not put man on the moon. It is simply basic addition. “If this plus this equals that, then I need this to have that.”

My friends, intelligence is the great equalizer! It is not out of reach for the common man. You do not have to be born with it, and Harvard does not monopolize its production.

posted by Malcolm Sykes @ 2:13 AM