"Book smart" or "street smart." Who wins?

nowadays, street smart… But book smart is never a bad thing…

“Vert Smart”

Street Smart, what are books going to do for you if you have no sense of anything else in life. My stepsister is book smart but not street smart, she can’t do much for herself, she calls her dad for everything.

I depends on the battle.

As scamp said, depends on the battle. if you’re on Jeopardy, it doesn’t matter how hard you can hit Alex Trebek, if you don’t know the Flight speed of a fully laden swallow (be it African or European) you are going to lose. But if you are in a bad neighborhood and you are looking through your wallet as you walk down the street, well, no word spelled out on a double word and triple letter score is going to save you.

I’d rather be book smart any day. Its better to be smart and ‘unhip’ than foolish and ‘cool’.

I am completely on the same page as you on that one delirium.

Damn my smashing good looks and ultimate crowd appeal! Damn them!

@delirium: I was never aware there was a “hip” or “unhip” to being street smart or book smart.

geek is chic

Perhaps these labels (all of them) oversimplify us. Everyone I know is more than just either/or – and that is including my friends from the local HS who help me out w. property maintenance here. Life is certainly less boring that way – but I only speak for myself.

Thanks gail! By Vert Smart I meant straight up, between the middle,......

and it was a skateboarding reference!

@Bulb; ah, I am SO out of it. Thanks for the definition. The generation gap does seem to getting bigger exponentially due to the ever-increasing speed of the info highway.

I don’t care how smart you are. If you don’t understand how the world operates the world will walk all over you. Street Smart FTW!

@shockvalue I love your answer. Was the laden swallow example a reference to my favorite Monty Python movie by any chance?

street smart for every day situations but a good balance of both to use the book smart out on the street, example a good public debate.

@scamp: hah, why yes it was, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

oops

I think street smart actually outweighs in the end – there are countless examples of millionaires that never graduated from high school, and brilliant professors that can barely figure out how to feed their families. The cat that is way street smart but doesn’t have a clue who Poe is will most likely have a better time at life than the Physics geek with two friends, one of them a fem-bot.

Both, why does one have to choose?

@peedub:
You are right, I think both win but for some reason it always seems to be a debate with people I know. They go good together like PB&J.

Yeah, I do like your question though. I guess I just like both worlds.

If I had to give one up I would probably choose book smart, which is probably not as pragmatic.

no way- if I had been given a choice at birth to be generously endowed one way or the other, for sure I would have snagged the street smarts

It really depends on the battlefield…..if you’re either booksmart or streetsmart – why not team up with someone of the other smart-type to increase your ‘smartness’...
If you’re fortunate enough to be strong on both – well, then you’re just superior :)

I don’t have time to read all the answers here, but I have found that balance wins :)

@shockvalue Ha ha!! Your Mother was a hamster and your Father smelled of elderberry!(And from my favorite scene) Come back you pansy, I’ll bite your legs off!! Thanks for the laugh.

It’s just a flesh wound!

Book smarts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs

Street smarts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno

Chuck Norris would wollup Bill Gates. Then Bill would buy his production company.

i WIN at book-smarts

i FAIIIILLLLL at street smarts.

Maxwell Smart…He can outwit even the dimwitted!!