You're Such a Smart Kid!

What is smart?
What is our criteria for intelligent?

These are terms we often apply to various people, concepts, all sorts of different things.
But the criteria couldn't possibly be universal. How does anyone decide what is intelligent?

For example, the seemingly unanimous response is that Martin Luther King, Jr. was an intelligent man. He fought for a worthy cause, helped people, gave amazing speeches with expertly crafted rhetoric, and now we celebrate his birthday as a holiday. He should be unquestionably considered smart, right?
Well, he also stuck his neck out on the line, put his family at risk, landed himself in jail, and eventually was murdered. Is it really the smartest thing to do to put yourself in that much danger? Would discrimination have not ended in there was no Martin Luther King Jr., if nobody ever heard "I Have a Dream"? I think it might've.
Not that I don't admire or appreciate King; I'm just trying to prove a point. If one considers bravery and strong convictions and good speeches intelligent, he definitely was. But if you consider simply doing what you need to survive the most intelligent life path, then Martin failed majorly.
So how do we decide what is intelligent and what is stupid? For all unanswered questions, I consult my friend dictionary.com.

Intelligent: having good understanding or a high mental capacity; quick to comprehend, as persons or animals

Interesting. The definition is just as vague and relative as the functional meaning of the word. "Good understanding"? "High mental capacity?" How do you decide those things?

What about smart? It's even broader in its functional definition. We use smart for everything!


7.
quick or prompt in action, as persons.
8.
having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability: a smart student.
9.
shrewd or sharp, as a person in dealing with others or as in business dealings: a smart businessman.
10.
clever, witty, or readily effective, as a speaker, speech, rejoinder, etc.
11.
dashingly or impressively neat or trim in appearance, as persons, dress, etc.
12.
socially elegant; sophisticated or fashionable: the smart crowd.
13.
saucy; pert: smart remarks.
14.
sharply brisk, vigorous, or active: to walk with smart steps.
15.
sharply severe, as a blow, stroke, etc.
16.
sharp or keen: a smart pain.
17.
Informal. equipped with, using, or containing electronic control devices, as computer systems, microprocessors, or missiles: a smart phone; a smart copier.
18.
Computers. intelligent (def. 4).
19.
Older Use. considerable; fairly large.

Wow. We really do use it a lot. I find the second definition interesting. It's almost the same as intelligent, so I feel less weird about using them almost interchangeably above.

Most of my life, people have stuffed me into the "smart" category. "Smart kids" in the gifted and talented program, at the "smart school". A nerd. But I never really liked being considered "smart" based on the fact that I get good grades. It doesn't take a Martin Luther King, Jr. to memorize a bunch of stuff and regurgitate it for a test. It doesn't take "intelligence" to tell a teacher everything they want to hear. So how do A's make me "smart"? It took me forever to make this website let me stop italicizing. A lot of people would consider that a "dumb" move.

I guess this boils down to one of those annoying debates on relativity, which can be applied in pretty much every situation. Humans view everything through their own experiences, so virtually nothing is universal. It's all relative. That doesn't really stop me from wanting to define everything.

Nobody ever comments these, but if anybody would like to weigh in on what they consider "smart" or "intelligent", I'd love to hear some thoughts other than my own. Anybody, anybody?