What defines ´Smart´

[Dezerte]

It's really not, it has a definition. And it doesn't include "maturity".

It's a controversial topic.

It doesn't "include maturity", but look at the picture I linked - it's overwhelmingly the green goats who display more typical intellectual traits than the white & red goats.

[Grummgug]

Smart is simply "knowing stuff".

The ability to apply the stuff you know is called aptitude.

Two people can memorize tons of mathematical formula that allows them to solve equations. Both of them are smart when it comes to that. But one of them may have a better aptitude for mathematics and is better at solving equations.

Testing for aptitude is also tricky because people are different. Some people perform poorly under pressure but are awesome at the mundane day-to-day stuff. Other people perform great under pressure but lose focus at the mundane day-to-day stuff. I've seen MANY cases where management pick one worker in the belief they have found the person with the highest aptitude, only to discover they were wrong, and it puzzles them, and the reason is they tested them in the wrong situation.

Its like an NFL quarterback. Some QBs elevate their game in the 4th quarter. Other QBs will outplay those QBs in the first 3 quarters. Who has the higher QB aptitude? It depends on the situation!

[lockedout]

What defines smart?

To me smart means someone who is self sufficient.

[Deleted]

To me smart means someone who is self sufficient.

Someone with downsyndrome can be self sufficient..

[Raphtheone]

Someone with downsyndrome can be self sufficient..

Someone without it might not be...

[Themius]

Someone without it might not be...

And that's neither here nor there.

Point is being self sufficient has little to do with being smart. You can simply specialize in living on a farm for instance.

When it comes to what is smart. I do not know, I am smart; however, I'm also essentially emotionally retarded when it comes to understanding what other people mean unless they are overt. I can mostly overcome that by just thinking about everything, which means my attention is usually partly on conversation and mostly working out other things.

I don't find being smart to be that important (unless it a partner of mine). I do find stupid people quite... interesting and sometimes I wonder what it must be like to be that dumb. (thinking of one of my old friends, high grades in school because she studied hard but.. stupid otherwise) the thing is you can be very smart, but unless you are actively doing something what's the point?

[Coraulten]

Critical thinking skills.

[Yvaelle]

We've seen these sorts of threads fairly often before, the way I define it is:

Intelligent - the ability to recognize patterns quickly (relative to others, and may be specialized to a particular topic - ie. Math intelligence versus game intelligence, etc)

Knowledgeable - having a larger than usual collection of knowledge (which may be specific to a field)

Wisdom - the ability to draw on a broad and diverse experience to predict human behaviour.

Smart - the ability to make correct decisions more often than usual.


So, an intelligent person can learn new concepts faster than most - they can walk into an exam room for a topic they know nothing about, notice patterns in the way the questions are asked or assumptions implied in one question that may help them answer another question - and respond by, having no prior knowledge of the subject, rapidly gleaning little details and compiling the patterns to make better guesses than their less intelligent neighbouring exam-writers: they might still fail, but they will consistently beat the odds.

A common mark of intelligence is prediction - since it's a necessary step in confirmation of their pattern recognition - they hypothesis a solution, and announce it, and then seek to confirm it - so intelligent people tend to talk about what they expect to happen next. Intelligence is no assurance of good decision making, though (more on this in a sec).

By contrast, a knowledgeable person is drawing upon their previous studies on the topic to seek a previous successful answer to the problem. They seek precedence, which means looking at past behaviour - knowledge is therefore also about pattern recognition - sometimes over a larger data-set, than intelligence - but is least effective versus new patterns (because they misattribute the past to the present).

Wisdom denotes a diverse and deep collection of personal experiences, and often a keen ability to learn from the experiences of others. Wise people are therefore knowledgeable, but in a broad sense - a diverse array of knowledge - and wisdom is usually specific to predicting the irrationalities of human behaviour. It makes sense to say someone is knowledgeable about Math, but is kind of weird to say Wise about Math - alternately you can be Wise about Love, but Knowledgeable on the topic of Love doesn't mean the same thing. 'Street smart' by this definition makes more sense as 'Street Wise' (but loses the alliteration so we'll allow it) - because it denotes the ability to predict human behaviour and emotional states (EQ is to Wisdom what IQ is to Intelligence).

Lastly, Smart isn't wisdom or knowledge or intelligence - it's the ability to make decisions effectively. Intelligent people are not necessarily Smart - they are quick to recognize patterns, but may lack knowledge - or may be too quick to leap to a conclusion (if they recognize a pattern that was actually coincidence). More than anything, smart people tend to give decisions extra effort - they usually have a methodology to decision-making (ie. weighing the pros and cons) and either have a better technique, or put more effort into the accuracy of the technique - before they draw a conclusion. Smart people are therefore not rash, and more objective than others - they don't allow their personal feelings or experiences to cloud their judgment - infact they hold off judgment until they have completed their analysis, and then they accept the result of their analysis - regardless of whether it was the answer they desperately wanted or not.

So, you can be extremely intelligent, and not smart - you recognize patterns far faster than others, and you leverage that advantage by acting faster than your competition: sometimes too fast. You can be very knowledgeable, and not wise - you are an expert on the subject, but you suck at anticipating how it will affect people. You can be wise without being intelligent - you don't know what the future holds, but you know how people will respond. You can also be unintelligent, but make smart choices - because you put more effort into weighing the choices than others.

You can also be all four at once - and you can be none of the above. Everyone rolls dice to see what their attribute in each category will be at char select (in the womb).

[Mikita-EU]

Being able to tie your shoelaces.

[worprz]

There really isn't room for debate. "Smart" is an adjective for intelligence. Intelligence and knowledge are two separate entities.

This seems most logical, normally when I say smart I mean intelligent. Basically smart to me is someone who can learn subjects quickly and do overall well in many subjects.

I've been called smart before because I have a lot of knowledge about things, but I don't consider that smart. My brother on the other hand is going to school to be an engineer and he can get straight A's and he never has to do homework because he finishes everything quickly.

EDIT: nice post Yvaelle! I do remember hearing there were many types of intelligence.
I've noticed that I learn instruments really quickly and also many school subjects, but math I have always struggled with. I can write a 5 page paper the night before it is due and will get an A, but with math I have to spend basically all my free time learning it.

[Gheld]

Smart is recognizing the difference between a full mind and an open mind.

[Reeve]

What defines smart? You hear a lot of people complain about generations becoming dumber and dumber. But in relation to the information we can all get on the internet nowadays, aren´t people generally smarter now than they were, say 60 years ago?

So what defines smart?

Is it intelligence, the ability to learn fast? Is it knowledge, how much knowledge has someone accumulated? You dont have to be able to learn for that. Is it IQ, EQ or a combination of those things? Or is it knowing when and how to addapt to your surroundings, for instance one could consider a scammer ´smart´, yet he might only know a couple of things regarding his own trait. Or does it have something to do with mindset? The will to learn, the drive to become more knowledgable.

What defines smart for you?

Someone who agrees with me.

[Raphtheone]

And that's neither here nor there.

And that was my point. I was tempted arguing that someone with Downs can't live independently, they'll always require some level of help, some even barely any, but in the end I opted for a message that the person I quoted could understand. I hope he did.

[Forgettable]

I would define someone as smart in a certain subject if they have a deep understanding of it and can exercise near perfect mastery of it.

You can be educated or trained in something like reading or driving, or quantum physics or cooking, but that doesn't necessarily make you smart regarding that subject, only proficient in the skill.

There's a lot of overlap, but for example:

Many people are proficient in reading, yet their comprehension and/or speed in reading is not stellar.
Many people are proficient in writing, but the writing can be messy and hard to decipher or not succinct.
Many people are proficient at driving, but their understanding of all of the rules of the road is not complete.
Some people are educated in quantum physics to the point where they could recite a number of equations or principles to you, yet they may not fully grasp every nuance of the subject.
Many people are proficient in turning on a stove and cooking some chicken, but not everyone may know the best combination of spices and sides to compliment the chicken.

[belfpala]

Many people are proficient in turning on a stove and cooking some chicken, but not everyone may know the best combination of spices and sides to compliment the chicken.

Experimenting with chicken thighs braised in a simple mixture of chicken stock, fish sauce, chilies, and white pepper. I put some shallots on the bottom.

We'll see how this goes. I have a nice mushroom salad and some pickled veg ready to go with it.

[Reeve]

Experimenting with chicken thighs braised in a simple mixture of chicken stock, fish sauce, chilies, and white pepper. I put some shallots on the bottom.

We'll see how this goes. I have a nice mushroom salad and some pickled veg ready to go with it.

Chicken thighs are good no matter what you put on them. I usually just put some seasoned salt and pepper, then add some barbecue sauce and it's amazing. But honestly almost anything would be good with chicken thighs.

[Eurydemus]

Having critical thinking skills.

[belfpala]

Chicken thighs are good no matter what you put on them. I usually just put some seasoned salt and pepper, then add some barbecue sauce and it's amazing. But honestly almost anything would be good with chicken thighs.

Turned out successfully, I sold out of it as a special before 7:30pm.

I'm trying to think what makes me "smart" about cooking other than having a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of ingredients and experience tasting them. Referring to what I originally commented on a couple posts up.

[Grummgug]

Chicken thighs are good no matter what you put on them. I usually just put some seasoned salt and pepper, then add some barbecue sauce and it's amazing. But honestly almost anything would be good with chicken thighs.

Since we've now discovered that so many dinosaurs have feathers, I've taken to calling chicken "dinosaur". Dinosaur thighs yum!

[Yvaelle]

Since we've now discovered that so many dinosaurs have feathers, I've taken to calling chicken "dinosaur". Dinosaur thighs yum!

I had planned on making an omelet later... but now the Dinosaur breasts in my fridge are looking too fun to pass up!