question

[harvey the wonder hamster]

What constitutes a person to be smart these days?

[Barry Morris]

Define smart.

What's that ludicrous TV show called?? "Smart as a Five year Old"???

KNOWING things does not make one smart!!!

[hobo]

I think we need a for instance to help us answer the question. For instance in the old days professional football players would play the game even if they had a concussion which was considered a smart thing to do at the time for if they refused to play they might just loose their job. These days a player who is suspected of having a concussion is assessed by the team staff and if there are signs of a concussion the player is not obligated to play and in fact would not be allowed to play. Of course some players today aren't so smart and try to beat the system by playing with a consecution but sometimes, later, and perhaps if there career is over, they wizen up and get a lawyer. I think being smart these days is more complicated then in those days. For instance there was a teacher in Alberta who got fired for giving a student a zero for not handing in an assignment. So the student gets some kind of a mark for doing nothing which makes him smarter then a student of those days who would have permanently received a zero.

Some people, like myself, who are in these days but are from those days claim to be smarter then people who are just from these days. I make no such claim for I lack a lot of smarts when it comes to the metric system.

[IMHO]

Being totally aware of what is going on around you.....being an intuitive person....being smart enough to realize there are even smarter folks out there....being able to share your smartness gift to others less fortunate.

[Bill Nash]

If we want to define "smart" then I think we should come up with a comparable opposite. Since "smart" seems to be an ambiguous defining word, do we use a likewise ambiguous word such as "dumb", "stupid", idiot", etc. Seems to me, although those words seem to be accepted colloquially as the opposite to "smart", we can define those words much easier than we can "smart".

So, what is the opposite of "smart"?

[hobo]

If we want to define "smart" then I think we should come up with a comparable opposite. Since "smart" seems to be an ambiguous defining word, do we use a likewise ambiguous word such as "dumb", "stupid", idiot", etc. Seems to me, although those words seem to be accepted colloquially as the opposite to "smart", we can define those words much easier than we can "smart".

So, what is the opposite of "smart"?

Not smart.

[Barry Morris]

Not smart.

ie "hobo"???

[riggs]

Is there a difference between smart and intelligent?

[hobo]

ie "hobo"???

Hmm. Seems like a thick remark.

[Anna Noyance]

To be smart is to be intelligent/have common sense, is it not?

[dancingqueen]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/smart

[IMHO]

I am smart...just ask my mother !!!

[axalon2003]

Just be sure that you don't confuse smarts for wisdom. They are definitely not the same thing.

[Barry Morris]

A smart person recognizes his capabilities and gifts. He works with them, and expands them if he can and desires to. A smart person recognizes his limitations. A smart person has common sense, and he is STILL smart if he realizes he's short of common sense, and therefore stays away from situations requiring it. And a smart person realizes he doesn't need to know lots of things in order to be smart.

[nightingale]

If you are stupid.....do you know it?

[axalon2003]

No, I haven't so far

[Anapeg]

If you are stupid.....do you know it?

Some do, but those that realize they are "stupid" are smart enough to realize their own limitations.

[The Left Sock]

It's a paradox!

Socrates always said, there is no wisdom to be found, unless we can at first admit, we know nothing at all.

Yet, Plato (or was it Aristotle?) proved that a youth with no formal training in trigonometry could solve Pythagorean theorem, with just knowledge at his disposal. He just needed to be asked the right questions.

'Smart' is a relative term.

[dancingqueen]

I think "smart" is more related to the speed at which your brain can process information. I'm not a particularly intelligent person, average IQ and all, but I know a lot of stuff, and I know where to find lots of stuff I don't happen to know.

[Barry Morris]

I think "smart" is more related to the speed at which your brain can process information. I'm not a particularly intelligent person, average IQ and all, but I know a lot of stuff, and I know where to find lots of stuff I don't happen to know.

They do say "fools rush in"!!