What makes a person smart?

[-Lithium-]

Theres alot of different definitions and stuff for what makes someone a smart person? What do you think does?

I think, that cleverness, wit, and common sense makes a smart person. Mainly just like cleverness and common sense. I mean it dont make you smart cause you know some historical stuff, thats just memorizing, anyone can memorize. Knowing how George Bush feels about an issuie dont make no one smart, but coming up with a way that you feel about something and it making sense, thats kinda what makes a person smart IMO...

But hey someone will prolly come up in here with something that I aint thought of yet and I could change my answer yet...

[B.A.]

motivation

[The Line]

some cases its nature, some cases its nurture

[HMARK Center]

It's got to be a combination, in my book, of common sense/wisdom and book smarts, mostly.

[Milkman Norm]

the brain?

[K7 - WC's Crowd Extra]

hitmanmark said:

It's got to be a combination, in my book, of common sense/wisdom and book smarts, mostly.

I'd say that's pretty much it.

[Deleted]

k7 said:

hitmanmark said:

It's got to be a combination, in my book, of common sense/wisdom and book smarts, mostly.

I'd say that's pretty much it.

Yup, same here. Hit the nail right on the head.

[Milkman Norm]

nah, I'm gonna stick with the brain.

[EvilMasterBetty, Esq.]

There's way too much involved and way to many things for you to narrowly define it well. For example, some people just can't do math for the life of them, but they could rattle off the perfect strategy to win a close election race. Or you have people who would tell you that Puccini is a pasta and Leonardo is a turtle but could break down the genetics of a rare ocean squid and tell you everything about it. Or you could put one guy on the street with just a few hundred dollars and in a few months he'd be pretty well off cause he knows how to work but put the same guy in a court room and he'd be lost.

There's many things one can be "smart" with. For example, I know that I've got an exceptional talent at math, which i'm hoping to parley into law which i'm actually interested in (and yes it works). However, for the life of me I will never, ever, understand philosophy. I'm barely getting a respectable grade in it now and I need at least a C to pass the class for my Major. Most people would call me smart, but that doesn't mean i'm smart about everything.

[BigBadZ]

when your name is Zach Shee... oh wait that's only me haha no I agree with the common sense, book sense thing

[kitsunestar]

gladiusofrome said:

motivation

This plays a big part in it, as well. I probably had the potential to be intelligent, but when I started not being able to do higher level math at an acceptable speed, I lost motivation as far as everything else goes too.

And now I feel like I complete idiot who doesn't know ANYTHING 99% of the time.

I'm also horrible at self-teaching, so any time someone calls me out for being stupid or not knowing anything, I always tell them "Hey, if you want to teach me, I'm willing to listen."

They never want to, of course.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

ravenm said:

but coming up with a way that you feel about something and it making sense, thats kinda what makes a person smart IMO...

Really depends on how you define "making sense". While something might sound well thought and well put and therefore, one could say "makes sense", it could be a batshit insane idea.

[Clarence "Showstealer" Mason]

enormous testicles?

['Sweet n' Sour' A. A. Estrada]

Motivation, mostly.

[thwak is T.hawk]

if society deems that person to be "smart"

technically, humans by nature are already the smartest animal on earth. Thereby, if humans are to say that one human is smarter then the other it's just what the majority of humans' think.

A good example of this is albert einstein usually being assciated as being one of the smartest people on earth, yet he was horrible in school.

[HRH The KING]

Personally "smart" isn't as important as "wisdom" IMO.

There are many people who have degrees and doctorates....but are Holocaust deniers.

They have the education and the qualifications, but they use that intelligence in a bad way.

Having a vast intellect is one thing, knowing how to use it properly is another.

[Libertine]

Without seeing to be gloating, my friends have told me I am the smartest person they know. That's nothing to do with being a scientific/mathematical whizzkid (because I am certainly not), but according to them, to do with my habit of reading three newspapers a day, watching the news reguarly, reading a few books per week and being able to make them laugh. Oh, and being able to adapt to videogames easily, but I think that's just because I've played them since I was about four.

[Funkyjumbo]

There is smart as in Intelligence and then smart as in Wisdom:

Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit

Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad

I'll choose wisdom

[The"threadicidal"bristolspapa]

It really comes down to whether or not, your parents shopped at the nerd store and bought you a pair of smarty pants.

Really I'm not sure. The idea of smart vs. dumb is interesting. It could be biological, or it could be psychological. I pondered this a week ago when my brother in law was sawing a ballpoint pen in half with a butterknife whilst wearing a white tee shirt. My son was listening to his Beach Boys CD at the time, and I had this dichotomy going on between the 20th century's great songwriter, and the 21st century's greatest Jackass reject.

[ToyfareMark]

Being smart simply means being able to solve problems. Whether its math, inventing something that changes the way society does things, or helping others solve problems.

Having a 4.0 GPA doesn't have to mean you're smart, it could easily mean you have a great memory when it comes to answering test questions, or you're a very good writer who can write unbelievably good term papers. It doesn't mean you can solve problems though, unless the term paper itself is about solving a certain problem.

Knowing history, being up to date on current events? Thats not smart either, thats being cultured. Common sense is just that, and you should already have that, and you can use it to solve some problems. Booksmarts is the same thing as having a great memory, and unless you put whats in those books to good use then the only point in knowing stuff like that is to get a good test score. Having street smarts can actually help you solve certain problems, especially when it comes to survival.

I know a person who went to college to get a certain degree, and they got it. Then they came to find out that getting work in the field they majored in was alot tougher than they thought, and they went on to do other things. When I ask them now about their original course of study, they cant remember anything they learned from it. That simply means that they only knew certain things when it was beneficial to them, and then simply forgot it all when they didn't need it anymore. Thats far from being smart.

So like I said, being smart means being able to solve problems. Whether they change the world, or simply get you through the day. I don't really care what the rest of society deems being smart as, I can only tell you guys what being smart is to me.

And as a history buff, I'm more on the cultured side then genius side if one were to go by my theory of smart.

Just my two cents.