Are you Intelligent, Smart, or both?

Reading time: 5 min

I was inspired to delve into this idea last week, as I was reflecting on how people react when I say I am a Fulbright fellow and how that makes me feel. Though I tried to stick to the 'under 3-minute reading' promise, I'm not sure I succeeded this time. I still hope I might spark some 'aha' moments, and I promise it connects to the self-leadership topic. For the other two sections, I kept it brief, but we'll get there soon.

✨ What do smartness and intelligence really mean?

We often reduce people to one dimension, but can we look beyond grades or titles?

Intelligence is the capacity for logical reasoning, understanding a subject, abstract thinking, and having deeper knowledge to solve a problem. From my readings, this trait is influenced by both genetics and environment (which explains “geniuses” who are born gifted).

Smartness is more about applied knowledge, being resourceful, witty, and adaptable. It focuses on real-life problem-solving and social skills, and it’s often linked to emotional intelligence, common sense, and practicality, which are harder to measure.

In short, intelligence is about understanding, smartness about application.

We see this in sayings:

• “Work/study smarter, not harder” underlines efficiency and the capacity to apply learned concepts.

• “He/she is intelligent, but acts stupid” points to the gap between theoretical ability and practical sense.

Here’s my own view (more schematic):

I found the article Born Smart or Built Smart? The Truth About Intelligence and Effort good. I resonated with the idea “Effective intelligence isn’t fixed”, referring to our agency in nurturing the cognitive capacity.

I also liked Alex Hormozi’s angle, who makes a comparison between academic smart and street smart.

• academic smart = theoretical or declarative knowledge, as he calls it,

• street smart = practical or procedural knowledge, which he refers to as the ability to apply learned concepts.

In his view, both matter, but adaptability and practical application often define real-world smartness.

In practice, I believe both intelligence and smartness intertwine.

👉 What about society?

Society values grades and titles as ways to differentiate and label people or define whether one is successful or not. This can turn into a game in which we just track scores. Funny thought, these scores don’t measure intelligence or smartness, but success and self-worth. It’s a slippery slope in pursuing what society rewards rather than what fulfills us.

👉 What about impostor syndrome?

I’d say it's rooted in the internal question: “What if I fail and I’m marked not good enough, not smart enough, not intelligent enough?” Deep down, this is about belonging. For a medical student, it’s the community of doctors. For a researcher, it’s the erudite circle of those who made significant discoveries. For an entrepreneur, it's the recognition after a successful exit. And for many, it’s the quiet acceptance of a parent who once said, “You must succeed!”.

What I understand is that it's not about not having impostor feelings at all, but rather about observing them and using them to grow self-awareness.

And through self-awareness, we build self-leadership.

✨ AI to (actually) use

Some articles talk about using AI as an Ikigai coach. Inspired by some prompts that circulate online and with some help from ChatGPT, I am sharing a useful prompt you can try to explore your Ikigai*:

*Ikigai is the Japanese concept for finding purpose in life.

✨ Life experiments to enjoy

If you got to this point, you already noticed my new experiment:

Write a newsletter - weekly, for the next 10 weeks, covering the 3 topics: self-leadership, AI for non-tech, and life experiments.

It’s a public commitment, so you’ll know how this goes. This was number 1. 😊

This week, be Smart in choosing one Small, Silly, Stupid thing that makes you Smile (check all 5 S-es). And do it!

Silvia