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Who here thinks that there is a distinction between being smart and making wise decisions?
I believe this to be the case. I'm sure that we can all think of plenty of examples of this distinction existing in practice from both history and our own personal experiences with others.
A few notable examples from history:
Adolf Hitler: diabolically brilliant man, but boy, did he make some incredibly stupid decisions - most notably, invading the Soviet Union while he was still fighting Great Britain.
Joseph Stalin: another insanely smart and crafty brutal dictator, but killing off basically the Soviet political and military leadership in the 1930s was perhaps not the wisest move (especially considering Hitler's invasion of the USSR a few years later...).
And finally, an American example:
Robert McNamara: The architect of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, surrounded by "Whiz Kids" who were also known as "the Smartest Guys in the Room." And yet...well, we all know how that turned out.
So yeah...I think it's pretty obvious that intelligence and wisdom are by no means necessarily correlated. If anything, super-smart people - particularly in positions of leadership - are at much greater risk of becoming extremely arrogant, to the point where they are blinded by hubris. And that makes their foolish, ill-advised decisions all the more dangerous.
I agree with you completely. I've long distinguished between the two. There are a lot of intelligent people....unfortunately few wise people. And many of wisest wouldn't score high on standard intelligence tests. I'd much rather be in the company of a wise person than an intelligent one who has little wisdom.
To me, intelligence is an ability to understand complexities and often in the absence of wisdom. Some of the most intelligent people haven't a shred of wisdom. And yet, people foolishly follow their intelligence mistaking it for wisdom.
Wisdom can belong even to the village idiot. It's applying humanity and learning from mistakes and history to properly see things as they are without looking thru colored glasses.
My own personal classification system, in increasing order of importance:
Intelligent: The ability memorize and quote back information. The people who do wonderful on standardized exams, Jeopardy, Trivial Pursuit, etc. But it says nothing about what to do with said information.
Smart: the ability/knowledge to utilize said information in a logical and useful manner. To apply it meaningfully in a "real-world" manner. Example: Sheldon Cooper has wonderful knowledge of the workings & parts of the internal combustion engine, but couldn't build (or rebuild or repair) one at all.
Wisdom: knowing the ramifications - both short-term and long-term - of how using said information would effect you or others. Experience in seeing "smartness" in action and knowing when or how to utilize it to the best benefit.
I was highly intelligent while going through high school - aced all my tests, had wonderful ACTs, SATs, etc. Knew all kinds of strange facts and useless information for quiz bowls.
But when I got to college, I found out that my professors actually required on their exams that I apply all those memorized facts to determine actual mastery of the topic (IOW, did I know what the Hell I was talking about, or was I simply regurgitating memorized data), I found out that I wasn't very smart. It took a few semesters to learn how to study - and not just for the long-term, but for developing analysis and evaluation skills on said information as well. I had to learn how to use the info - to become smart.
But I still hadn't developed wisdom. To me, this took experience - living through my decisions (and mistakes) and learning from them. It took time to amass enough successes (and failures) to truly know how to make the best decisions with the knowledge I had developed. And I'm not just talking about life choices (politics, ethics, careers, etc.), but actual daily application of everyday "smarts".
I believe that with great wisdom there is usually also a fair amount of intelligence. I don't think one can be very wise and not intelligent.
My ex MIL had very little education and grew up during the Great Depression and lived in houses usually without running water or electricity. She was crude, but a very shrewd observer of life. Her homespun wisdom was always spot on and thru the crudeness and humor made it fun as well. She could opine on nearly any subject and break it down fast.
As stated, intelligence is the ability to learn new information. This can be memorization of facts, learning a new technique for a task, or similar.
Wisdom is the ability to analyze the long-term ramifications of an action. It's similar to common sense, which is the ability to analyze the short-term ramifications of an action. Wisdom requires lots of life experiences and lots of thought, and generally is associated with age; common sense is more instinctual (don't light a charcoal grill in your living room).
People can possess high levels of any of the three with or without any skills in the other two. Someone can be very wise without a high intelligence. An old country housewife without any real education or ability to memorize facts and figures can still be very wise if you give her the chance to think through the situation.
My grandpa has a third grade education, but was very intelligent AND wise.
Anyway, I'll use myself for an example. I'm considered intelligent by normal standards. However, I made a ton of unwise decisions in my teenage years. Didn't mean I was not intelligent; more like misguided. Wisdom is only really gained with life experience. Hell...babies are intelligent, but I've yet to see a baby that was considered "wise".
Wisdom, intelligence and knowledge overlap some, but all are different things. An intelligent person can figure they need knowledge and gain it more quickly than someone without intelligence, and an intelligent person can synthesize wisdom without merely learning from experience. Someone who has all three is a formidable force.
I always think back to the neighbor Bob when I was growing up. In an era when electronics weren't widely understood, this guy was a genius. A true nerd. Anything electrical, sound, audio, video...he could do. He was hired as a freelance by Kodak and Xerox when their own people couldn't solve problems.
And he and his family always lived in a barn. Literally.
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