Are You Smart or Wise?
First of all it isn't stated anywhere in the essay that the common goal of both being smart and wise is to be able to act in unknown situations. Were we talking about known situations, the ability to act would really be only about how much experience one has gathered and how much knowledge one was able to extract from the experience. By extracting knowledge from experience I simply mean learning how to act the next time the same situation occurs.
Both wise and smart people have to extract knowledge from their experience, but in my opinion the difference is how they use the knowledge.
Wisdom
I see wisdom as the ability to appropriately apply the knowledge to the unknown situation. To see what's common and what's different between the current situation and what one has experienced in the past. Acting is then based on heuristics of how to adapt the behavior which worked in the past to this new situation.
Intelligence
Whereas intelligence is according to me more about the ability to generate possibilities how to act, to predict what effect the actions will have, and efficiently search though the alternatives, which includes evaluating only the relevant ones and expanding them further while disregarding the irrelevant ones.
Of course what I described here were just simplifications, because no two situations are identical, so everybody has to be wise to some degree and also wise people usually consider more alternatives. But I hope you get my point.
I am curious to see what you think about both the essay and my reply to it.
This was very interesting. I enjoyed reading it too.
My initial thought about the difference between wisdom and intelligence, argued in Is it worth being wise? is that they're just compartments of the same thing. Words. Probably found in the same paragraph in any thesaurus. Splitting hairs.
Smart vs wise.
I agree with your take on wisdom, @hr1 . Wisdom is distilled knowledge, born from experience. After spending a lot of time with much older people, I learned that time doesn't equal wisdom. Plenty of dumb old people. Reading 'wisdom' memes doesn't imbibe you with wisdom either. I'd add that wisdom isn't always about making the right choice. It can be about considering and understanding, not necessarily linked to actions or choices. Not necessarily with a goal in mind.
Smarts or intelligence: if you look at 'street smart' this is about distilled knowledge and experience applied to real life.
This sounds more like neurosis to me. I don't think it's to do with variations in employment.
I disagree with Paul Graham about the path to wisdom being through discipline. I think you distill information, store it. When new or conflicting info comes along, you consider it alongside all the stuff you've stored. Then you calibrate everything as a whole. This is continuous.
Half of his physicists are on Prozac. Lol. Half of everybody's on Prozac! Them's the times we're in. Big Pharma's eating everyone.
Thanks. It was interesting to chew over these matters.
PS I know I'm late to the party but it was just too juicy to not say anything. Thanks for posting it.
It's funny, I wanted to respond about discipline being an important aspect for gaining wisdom by citing Confucius, which went in my head as:
And I was interpreting the 'limitation' as purposeful limitation of own actions, which I think of as discipline. Of course it didn't quite make sense to me for it to be the 'easiest' option. But if you think about it, forbidding yourself some actions does make your life easier, as you don't need to consider them anymore.
Anyway, I've just found out the quote goes in fact like this:
Anyway thank you for joining in! I think it's never too late to discuss things that matter. Hope to read your thoughts on my future posts as well..
LOL ahahahah I'm glad you found the real quote. I'd have tortured myself with considering 'limitation'. But isn't it interesting how we can throw 'limitation' in with everything and make it fit the model. Humans: we gotta make everything make sense somehow. We love our patterns. You may have taken philosophy in a new direction. Confucius who? HR1's in town now :D
You'll deffo see me in your future posts. I'm into all this type of thing. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. And thanks for the lovely upvote too.
@Hr1 and @anjkara, my name is Lori. ✨I am amazed.
I find this interesting and yet... very heavy with truth. It is an incredible lesson in the word-fumble between limitation and immitation.
I think that is strikingly fitting to a fundamental irony in humanity.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What I mean is, if we enjoy an activity very much, it often times is something we ought not to do too much- like eating a donut or sleeping.
What is it with humanity that restricts the pleasures and freely delivers all the hard tasks in abundance? Challenges are all around.
Actually... if things are overly abundant they become less pleasurable I guess.
Rarity is a feature that adds value to a pleasure. It’s odd that we are like this and it seems like a form of self - cruelty. After all, if we are always more interested in the things that we don’t yet have, are we able to truly enjoy the moment that is happening now? I wonder how difficult it would be to change these patterns of thinking. It might not be an instinctual activity. I think we might be trained to think this way by our collective, silly society. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Great post!, I am glad I tracked it down through your comment feed hr1. Thanks for the support and I am really enjoying all the great content here on steemit! Happy to be a new member of the family. I believe wisdom and intelligence come from a love and devotion to your craft. I never went to college but have fallen deep for my passions and have grown very wise through making mistakes. Great article and thanks again bud!
Lol Prozac.
Wonder what confucius wood thank about that. or um maybe im just comfused...
ROFL
sorry had to, after reading first reply...but i think you nailed it
@anjkara you are very wise and kind.
thanks for the knowledge +1
OMG!!!!!!
you nailed it man. I personally like the way you simplified the whole thing and I think you are making so much sense. If each individual can make these opinions of yours a point of reference whenever they are in positions to give verdicts and views about issues, they definitely will be regarded as great men and women. thanks for this post.
I LOVE IT
Fantastic post @hr1 I agree with your responses. As for me I would say wisdom is about doing the right thing and knowing what that is. Making the more ethical decision and reaction. I am called an old soul because I always do what's "right" and go deep into the reason of why it is better for your overall life, mankind, ect. That is where I see the difference in wisdom and intelligence is just the common correct answer, the status quo if you will.
Great post I loved this and I love wisdom! :)
That's a good point that ethics also come into play here..
@hr1 Thank You for your kindness and STEEMIT Wisdom, The Bunker Lady and I appreciate it.
Yea I believe so. I actually just did a "wisdom" type post you can see HERE... Would love to hear your thoughts. Keep these great posts coming though my friend!
So enlightening @hr1 really there is definitely a distinction between wisdom and intelligence, I for a person agree with your definition of wisdom as the application of knowledge,i think there is an extra to that, I see wisdom as a force that propels the individual to apply his knowledge. You know most people say knowledge is power but always stand to debunk that school of thought by saying applied knowledge is power, because one can have knowledge of a thing to cause a tremendous Change in his life and maybe even society and never acts on it. But the one who act his knowledge to change the course of events is wise and that is wisdom.
Thank you, I have followed you. I will be making a series of post soon on three kinds of wisdom,
dear @hr1 i am waiting for your new articles. your papers are great brother. I'll been glad to see and upvote ur new artticles. thanks bro! peace
Thank you so much @hr1
You always upvoted my posts.
But, whenever I want to show gratitude to you, by upvoting you or by resteem your post.
Nothing.
I really wanna say thank you so much..:)
I agree with you #bitdollar (That's the difference between me and my husband #fitzgibbon... I'm wise, he's smart...)
Must admit, there is some truth to that, oh wisest and fairest lady
Wow, that's wise dear husband!
Haha wisdom is great! :)
I agree with @bitdollar! Ethics are a huge part of how we use our wisdom! We could be brilliant, but still be an asshole. If we use our wisdom in a servants heart kind of way we always get it back... Without even expecting. @hr1... This is a really sold share! I like what you said about adapting behaviors. Very thought provoking! Thanks so much for this!
I prefer being wise to being smart. I have searched about some examples to compare between smart people and wise people you may want to know. Smart people- they acquire and apply knowledge quickly. Wise people take more time but they will understand it deeply.
Smart ppl process information in systematic and logical way. With the wise, they process logically and emotionally.
Smart ppl want to talking to express their opinion but wise ppl want to listen and add comment.
Smart ppl may impose their thought on others sometimes. But wise ppl accept the differences.
Smart ppl base on their knowledge to solve problem. Wise ppl base on their judgement and intuitive to solve problem.
Recently I have realize that you keep upvoting for me. ^^. Thank for your support. This is wisdom. Know to express thankfulness to keep longer relationship. Haha
I wouldn't contrast wisdom and intelligence on the same scale. Intelligence is the ability to learn and understand facts. Wisdom is the ability to learn and understand how to live. Intelligence manifests in many ways, as does wisdom. There can be mentally slow and mentally quick wise and intelligent men.
Wow! I love the way you juxtapose between smart and wise people. I agree with you based on this. Especially, wise people processing information or situations in a logical and emotional manner. They would try not to hurt the feelings of the interactants or participant - whichever case it may be. #OWB
Wow. I am smart the most of the time but there are moments when I am wise. I just found myself 🤣🤣🤣🤣😎. Interesting conclusion @hr1, but I agree with you
Interesting topic for sure! I like your description of intelligence being the ability to generate possibilities for how to act. To me intelligence is removed of any ethical or moral component (thanks @bitdollar for mentioning ethics as I don't think you can reasonably discuss this topic devoid of ethics.) So that would mean that intelligence could be used for nefarious purposes - like the typical example of AI gone wild. But wisdom? I'd be curious if anyone would argue that wisdom could be used for evil. So maybe we can say that intelligence is simply the ability to reach an intended outcome by applying known information, while knowledge encompasses that plus the ability (learned or inherent?) to assess the situation for the best possible outcome. Which obviously leads to the question of who decides what is "best". And that, I'd say, is where wisdom comes in. :)
That's an excellent point! Maybe we should strive for Artificial Wisdom instead of Artificial Intelligence :)
I wouldn't. Being wise you take your time and you apply something when reached "perfection". This is how I managed to recover my freedom, after 10 years of being raped by my ex. I had to be selfish and to think about how I felt at that time. You have the ability to be "cold" and to take "wise" decisions.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts at a time when I am looking for posts to read in my feed. I finally have found content from you in my feed.
Why do I say that? Because many of my posts have been receiving upvotes from you and I always wanted to read from the angel supporter. Haha!
Wisdom & Smartness
I think after reading your post and thinking about both, I can say the following.
Loved reading the post and I wish more people would read genuine content like this so I'll just resteem.
And why would I see a post from you. This is your first blogpost in 6 months. My entire Steemit experience is of 6 months. Based on what I read, I would like to read more from you. Please keep sharing.
To me, intelligence can be destructive on the world where wisdom cannot be so. Let's pretend there are two people, one with only the intelligence to build an atom bomb but lacking in wisdom. The other person has the intelligence to build the atom bomb but also has wisdom. The wise person would not have built such a thing even with the intelligence to do so. Where the intelligent person is just looking to "further his craft" without any concern for how it would affect the world.
This is why our modern world has been taught to celebrate intelligence much more than wisdom. Intelligent people can be much easier manipulated by those in power to further their ends and those with wisdom cannot.
A story from Utah Phillips goes as so: He was hanging out in a town doing nothing productive when a man came up to him and said 'Why don't you get a job?' Utah being a well read man and being aware of the Socratic method asked him 'Why?' the man replies 'You can earn some money that way' Utah continues with his socratic method and asks again 'Why?' The man says 'you can earn so much money that you could save up and live good and never have to work again' Utah replies 'Thats what I'm doing now'. That is wisdom to me.
Nice POV to be honest. I read the essay, for real what I thought was wise, wasnt so wise after all.
That sentence above, to me, can also be applied to being intelligent. More than often, I believe wisdom is the ability to see what cannot be seen, to look between the lines and make judgement based on the situation. He has a ton of experience and a ton f knowledge in any given area.
A wise person can see the outcome of your actions to a high degree before you take it(like the way an elder tells you youll hurt yourself if you do that )
An intelligent person, is just what you describe in your post.
Then again, being intelligent, is a step in the right direction for being wise.
this sums it all.
Very interesting post boss, I am glad I saw you post today.
I agree with you on some parts. Here is my take on the difference between them:
For me Intelligence is the ability to find solutions. While wisdom comes from experience. Wisdom is the knowledge we have gained from past situations.
"First of all it isn't stated anywhere in the essay that the common goal of both being smart and wise is to be able to act in unknown situations."
I think the "goal" of intelligence and wisdom is problem solving.
To illustrate the difference let's suppose we have two individuals with the same intelligence who are asked to do a sophisticated job.
The one with wisdom will do the job better, because he or she had done a similar job before and could apply that knowledge for this job (which is your point).
In other words, to me intelligence is the ability to find solutions, while wisdom is knowledge that we have gained from a past experience to solve a particular problem.
This was a really good thought to start my day! Also I wanted to thank you for supporting so many steemians!
You are a hidden hero of Steemit!
Nice to meet you! I am a new-bie from S.Korea, and got to visit your blog with curiosity, whick your voting-up my post had made. And accidently I saw this post and I think that it is very critical analyze and makes sense to me. Especially the part of pointing the difference for "situations".
Though my english is bad, plz excuse me and I will often visit here and read good posts. Have a nice day :-)