Adaere's Journal: Too Smart To Be So Dumb

This should be required reading for many of us here at Slashdot. Since we are of above average intelligence (which can no longer be assumed if you judge by the comments posted nowadays), we should remember that intelligence is no guarantee of right action.

Too Smart To Be So Dumb

Interesting, but one-sided.

[Snags]

Intelligence and common sense aren't really inversely correlated. There are plenty of smart people, including in acedemia, who hate the liberal intellectual snobs described in the article just as much as or more than the dimwitted President Bush. It is important, however, to remember that intelligence takes many forms. Engineering ability, the ability to come up with long arguments full of big words, character judgement, and the ability to grasp the important parts of a human situation are all different.

Re:Interesting, but one-sided.

[Adaere]

I agree that the presence of intelligence does not preclude the presence of common sense. My intelligence is above average, but so is my wisdom (at least I've been told that).

I would consider the last two examples of intelligence you give to be more examples of wisdom or insight, or even experience, than raw intellectual ability. So again the question is raised. What is intelligence? I've always subscribed to a more limited definition, that intelligence is the ability to learn. Some include "street sm