According to the Oxford dictionary, book smart is having knowledge acquired from books implying lack of common sense or worldliness. Street smart is having the experience and knowledge necessary to deal with the potential difficulties of life.
I was an avid reader (still am) in high school. I had read many of the classics and Shakespearean plays and quoted from them to impress the girls in my class. Then one of my classmates burst my bubble by asking me, “Hey smart-ass, you know all the clever quotes but do you know how to swim or change a tyre?
You may know all the quotes but it won’t help you if you are drowning or have a flat tyre.” Ouch! That hurt and the fact that some of the girls came to my spirited defense did not help. Street smarts is certainly more important than book smarts when it comes to success in life.
We are blessed with one or the other. Or maybe both, In the academic environment, the key to success is learning through books and classes instead of experiential learning in the real world. I excelled in literature because I genuinely loved everything about it.
That being said, academics never came easily for me, and I never felt 100 per cent comfortable in that environment even as a child. One reason I believe street smarts is more important than book smarts in the real world is because the real world and the academic world do not operate in the same way.
The rules of success are very different. In the academic world – there is a clear structure, a timeline, rigid rules, and equal information. It reminds me of a story my father told us years ago. A guru had four disciples whom he trained to perform certain tasks and not to deviate from them – somewhat akin to a JD of your responsibilities.
That is why in the US, if you tell an employee to do something, he or she may say, “That’s not my job.” But I digress. The guru was old and frail and wanted to go to the other side of a fast flowing river. The disciples had to carry him across.
One disciple slipped and fell and the others lost control and the guru started to float away in the rapid current. There was no mention in their JD to save the guru. This may seem like an extreme example but these things happen.
In schools, if you study hard and do your homework, you will do reasonably well. Every day is planned out for you in advance. Every year is planned out. You don’t have to think. You just have to follow the system.
Of course, we are all born with different intelligence levels. Some students are like Einstein and others like Trump. Some subject matters are harder to understand. I was terrible at mathematics and physics.
I always wondered aloud, much to the angst of the teachers, how simple harmonic motion or the Pythagoras theorem would help me in my life. I still do not have an answer. Structure is the key word for the academic environment.
Another thing that I realise as I get older is that intelligence comes in many forms. The traditional definition of intelligence (IQ) does not necessarily capture the full spectrum of intelligence needed to succeed in the real world.
Some people are super creative, but cannot do numbers. Some people can do numbers, but have zero creativity – Arvind Mani People who thrive under structure and clarity are best suited for academics.
The real world does not operate that way. There are a million choices and experiential learning is a key success factor. Have you chosen the right career? Do you know how to navigate without clear information?
Do you even know what you are good at? Do you learn the right lessons from every good, bad, and ugly experience? There is no clear structure and no clear path. Social dynamics, leadership abilities and professional networks play a big part in an individual’s ability to succeed.
Of course, a person must have reasonable intelligence to succeed, but a high IQ can often be an obstacle. Book smart people strongly prefer to rely on solid, data and complete information to make decisions.
Street smart people often rely on their intuitions and creative thinking to guide them. In the real world, EQ is more valuable than IQ.
If you have a high IQ, but are inept at reading people or poor at knowing how to protect yourself in social situations and office politics, you are unlikely to succeed in a corporate environment. But if you have high EQ and average IQ, you can do quite well.
Another thing that I realise as I get older is that intelligence comes in many forms. The traditional definition of intelligence (IQ) does not necessarily capture the full spectrum of intelligence needed to succeed in the real world.
Some people are super creative, but cannot do numbers. Some people can do numbers, but have zero creativity. In the real world, variables are constantly changing. There is no transparency. There are often no rules or structures.
People are coming in and out of your life. Opportunities are everywhere, but it won’t matter if you are blind to them. Street smart people can navigate well in this environment, but book smart people often feel lost because of the lack of structure, transparency, and information equality.
If you are book smart (and not that street smart), you probably should choose a more “academic” boring business career like accounting or banking. But if you are street smart (and not that book smart), you will can do something fun and exciting like a startup career or the SME path.
There are so many examples of that especially after the pandemic. Over the years it has been quite difficult for me to discern if I am streetsmart or book smart. So I asked my wife. She stared at me for a long time and said, “Neither, just go and do the dishes.”
As I was doing the dishes, I grudgingly agreed with her assessment. If there are too many dishes or she is gearing up for Diwali cleaning, I make an excuse to go the office – a blissful respite. So I guess I am somewhat street smart.
But I still need to learn how to change a tyre. Or just sell the damn car.
• ARVIND MANI is a former teacher who is passionate about quality education. He lived in the US for 35 years and was actively involved in training youths to improve their speaking skills. The views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper. He can be reached at theinspiredteacher9@gmail. com.
