Street Smarts or Book Smarts?

[Faiien]

In our current generation, which of the two intelligences do you think is more important to have? Street smarts(knowing how to read people,how to tell lies from truths, how to live on the "streets" ect.) or book smarts (calculating pie to the 15th digit, remembering the periodic table, understanding shakespeare ect.) Explain why you think one is more important than the other and how it is more beneficial to everyday life.

[Graeme]

If you want to be successful, and have a large income, book smarts are necessary. Our current world is more competitive than ever before, with a massive number of Indian and Chinese people graduating with university degrees every year, outnumbering those from any of the G8 countries. Furthermore, software automation and robotics will soon make grunt work and all forms of unskilled labour obsolete. Finally, average income is decreasing for all degree holders except for those with graduate level education.

On that note, good luck surviving in this cutthroat world without basic street smarts.

Both are important >_>.

Edit: Just wanted to point out that the book smart examples you noted aren't really book smart >_>. Need high-level education + problem solving and innovation.

[Vezer]

Street Smarts is where it's at. Ever notice how nerds have no friends... other than other nerds?

Imagine going through highschool without ever getting a date... Sounds like a nightmarish world to me. I'd rather grow up to be semi-successful, I mean, money isn't everything. Or I could be a professional beggar, I hear some of them make like... $49 an hour. (http://www.spike.com/video/manswers-season-1/2942291)

[Giggilyomeromicon]

Street Smarts is where it's at. Ever notice how nerds have no friends... other than other nerds?

Imagine going through highschool without ever getting a date... Sounds like a nightmarish world to me. I'd rather grow up to be semi-successful, I mean, money isn't everything. Or I could be a professional beggar, I hear some of them make like... $49 an hour. (http://www.spike.com/video/manswers-season-1/2942291)

Getting laid by someone you'll never see again in highschool is much more important then becoming successful later in life so you can support an actual family.

[Vezer]

Getting laid by someone you'll never see again in highschool is much more important then becoming successful later in life so you can support an actual family.

And the subsequent layings in college. (That is, if you have the booksmarts to make it to college)

[Giggilyomeromicon]

And the subsequent layings in college. (That is, if you have the booksmarts to make it to college)

I see you weren't kidding when you said you were becoming a sex addict. Enjoy your terrible future.

[Faiien]

I would definitely choose book smarts. I believe that if I could be successful enough in a job with my booksmarts, then I can surround myself with people who are street smarts. :)

[Black.Ice]

You can't have 100% of one or the other. You simply cant. You need a combination of both, and it's impossible to say one is more important than the other.

Why? Because if you have book smarts, you can be the most intelligent person in the world, but you wouldn't know how to profit from it because you had no street smarts. I'm assuming that having no street smarts means you're completely naive about the way the world works. Imagine if you come up with the next big idea, however, you have no street smarts so your coworker takes it from you... or something like that.

Having 0% street smarts would probably mean you'd be really naive, and wouldn't get far. Hell, you'd be getting fooled a lot by those Nigerian email scams as well....


If you had only street smarts and no book smarts, you won't get far from this life. Imagine someone without a HS degree who's illiterate. What kind of life will they be living?


You need a combination to survive in this world.

[Faiien]

Well, I knew someone would make a post similar to yours BI. I'm simply saying, in our current generation which one is more important to have. I know it takes a combination of both to survive in the real world but the balance sometimes tips to one side as time passes by. So I'm simply asking, which do you think is more important to have more of right now.

[Black.Ice]

Book smarts, by far. Street smarts will only get you so far, but book smarts are what's going to make you become the cream of the crop. The reason being is that book smarts don't teach you the subject only; they teach you how to learn.

Fifty years ago, having a HS diploma was considered somewhat of a big accomplishment. Having an an associates degree thirty years ago landed you a great paying job. In our current day and age, if you don't have a bachelor's degree, you're pretty much screwed and are guaranteed to be stuck in the lower-middle class.

Bachelor degrees are becoming somewhat underrated now; there are way too many people who have them. As time progresses, people will need to be more and more educated for the challenging jobs that come.

My line of thinking is that education = money and money = success, therefore it's probably better to focus on book smarts.

Street smarts will help you survive in the world and make your life a hell of a lot easier to live, but they can always be learned. Imagine some guy who's well settled in life with a great job and all that, but has no idea of how to even get a cab or survive in the streets. Life will be hard for him, but he can eventually learn.

On the other hand, think of some guy who's great on the streets. He can hustle people and is a real smooth talker. He can probably get himself in a decent job and all that, but there's not much else he can do. He can eventually learn a skill / trade, but it seems much harder to do it if you don't have a foundation in book smarts.

I'm not sure if I'm making sense here because I'm falling asleep, but my main line of thinking is this:

Book smarts teach you how to learn, street smarts teach you how to survive. If you are book-smart, you can eventually learn how to be street smart, because you've taught yourself to learn. If you're street smart, you'll know how to survive even in the worst situation, however, you won't be able to learn new things.


/me needs to get some sleep.

[mranderson]

Street smarts are more important in the real world. Even though BI is saying that book smarts are far more important kids don't need that much book smarts to get through college. He is trying to define the two classes of "smarts" and tell you book smarts are more important. Than people begin to stereotype scenarios that happily coincide with their views.

Honestly though, I've seen book smarts, and street smarts and there isn't a real difference, just in how people look at others. And well I was never happy hanging out with kids that had street smarts, sure it was fun, but that was it. It was just fun. One needs to be a well balanced individual. At the point you are categorizing you've gone to far. There is nothing stopping a nerd from getting a date or getting laid (I use this example because it is generally the antithesis to the stereotype as well as the accepted belief among the counter-stereotype).

In the world you need hardly any book smarts to get by, and honestly if you're posting a topic about it you've got to much book smarts :) All street smarts are is experience. Go talk to a girl, you don't even need to ask her on a date. Just talk :P

[TinyDancer]

I see you weren't kidding when you said you were becoming a sex addict. Enjoy your terrible future.

How does wanting to get laid in college make you a sex addict, and why would getting laid in college give you a terrible future? Children. Tsk tsk.


There definitely has to be a balance. My grandmother was on vacation with her boyfriend (yes, she has a boyfriend) who's a MENSA member. A few days into their trip, she started getting dizzy and having trouble breathing. Instead of taking her straight to the hospital, he decided they'd drive home from South Carolina a few days early, and then she just sat around getting worse and worse until my aunt, an RN, convinced her to go to the hospital. Turns out she's been having congestive heart failure for the past week. She's getting treated, but if her "genius" boyfriend had been any more oblivious, she'd probably be dead right now.

[Leosam096]

Street smarts are more important.
Book smarts are more beneficial.
Seeing it this way makes sense.