Street Smart vs. Book Smart, What Makes You Special

Have you ever wandered, it does not matter how much books you have read, how much theories you have learned, how much knowledge you have gained, how much abstracts you have known, but there is still some empty spaces that affect your lack of decisions in life? It is an enigma – missing pieces of a puzzle that need to be solved!

Aristotle, the great philosopher himself, differentiates the two distinguishable intellectual virtues: Phronesis and Sophia. Sophia often is related to the wisdom, for people to think well about the nature of the world and to “understand” the way the world works. On the other hand, Phronesis constitutes the ability of “adaptation” that would affect/change how a person would react to different situations that they encounter according to their instinct for the betterment of their lives. Sophia involves the deliberation of universal truths - how a person would behave in certain situations based on his/her receptive knowledge. Phronesis considers the choosing of different action preferences to achieve a certain end based on self intuition.

I envy people who possess the natural talent of being street smart. I often wish to be blessed with more street smart than book smart. By being a book smart, I love to observe how the street smart people would react and handle novel problems in different situations. I feel challenged to compete with the street smart individuals whether it involves school or work activities. At my workplace, I feel frustrated when a person can make better decisions than I can. I can definitely argue about the technical knowledge, but I am lacking the ability to adapt to different situations. Oh… the frustration. What should I do? Someone just stole my thunder. Instead of developing my negative feelings, I always try to focus on my work result and work together with these street smart people. Consequently, my knowledge grows and my ability to handle certain things improves.

For me, being a book smart is definitely as important as being a street smart. A person needs to find the balance of these two. If you consider yourself a book smart, surround yourself more with the people of street smart and vice versa. Both book smart and street smart have their specialty in handling situations in life. I am proud of being a book smart. At the same time, I envy those of the street smart. In the end, I realize that both the book smart and the street smart should work together as a team to achieve good results. It is like the Ying and the Yang – one completes and supports another.

Say cheese!