Here is article #2 (link is at bottom of the page)
Nine
Differences between Being Wise and Smart
Posted: June
18, 2012 in By Patrick Bet-David
Being smart
is linked to having the key to success. If you were smart growing up, it was
almost a given that you were going to be successful. But what about the kid who
lost his father when he was twelve, lived in fifteen different places growing
up, had to start working at the age of thirteen to support his mother and two
brothers, and still had to find a way to have a cool image in school? His GPA
almost certainly took a hit due to some of those uncertain circumstances, and
that perhaps caused him to not earn the label of smart. What do we do with that
kid in our society? Do we throw in the towel for him and say that he has no
shot in life because of his circumstances, or do we label him as a wise kid?
Let’s look
at some differences between being smart and wise:
1. Can
anyone be smart?
What would
you call someone who has spent ten years studying a topic? Sports, politics,
religion, health, relationships, parenting, or any other topic. How about if
she reads 100 books just on that one topic and takes courses on it for years?
Wouldn’t that make her smart?
But does
that necessarily make her wise? Have you ever met anyone who knows a ton about
sports but isn’t necessarily a great athlete? How about someone who has studied
religion but doesn’t implement any of the doctrine taught in his religion? What
would you call that? Someone who is smart but not necessarily wise possibly?
2. Logic
versus emotion.
Smart people
tend to process information in a logical way whereas wise people process the
emotional, the spiritual, and the subtle side of the logic as well.
3. Speed of
growth creates wisdom.
Mark Twain
once said, “A person who has had the bull by the tail once has learned sixty to
seventy times as much as a person who hasn’t.” I’ve met many smart people in my
life who unfortunately pass up the opportunity to put themselves in situations
where they would grow at a much faster rate. Sometimes putting ourselves in
situations where we haven’t been before empowers us to grow at a rate we never
have before. It’s almost as if you experience ten years in a span of six
months, which leads to wisdom.
4. Does
wisdom only come with age?
Jimmy
Connors once said this about experience: “Experience is a great advantage. The
problem is that when you get the experience, you’re too damned old to do
anything about it.” There’s no doubt that a big part of wisdom does come with
experience, but one of the most important formulas for gaining wisdom is to
surround yourselves with people much wiser than yourself whom you trust to help
you on your journey of gaining wisdom.
5. When to
open your mouth and when not to.
Here’s a
humorous way of explaining the difference between intelligence and wisdom.
Being smart is knowing your wife’s hair style isn’t as good as her last one.
Being wise is knowing enough to keep your mouth shut. Gentlemen, this can help
you tremendously.
Another
explanation could be that a smart person is aware that a tomato is a fruit but
a wise person knows not to put one in a fruit salad.
6.
Know-it-all versus willing to learn and grow.
A wise
person knows that they’re not the smartest person out there, which makes them
seek new information in order for them to learn and grow. We’ve all heard the
saying “he’s too smart for his own good,” but I’m not sure how often you’ve
heard “he’s too wise for his own good.”
7. Knowing
versus doing.
There’s a
big difference between knowing things and knowing how to use what you know.
Reading a book about how to start a business is a waste if you don’t actually
start a business. Reading a book about how to improve your health is a waste if
you end up having a whole cheesecake by yourself that evening after finishing
the book.
8. Employing
knowledge versus employing judgment under pressure.
A good
friend of mind once said that it’s easier for a wise person to gain knowledge
than for a smart person to gain judgment. The obvious difference is that being
smart is a process of learning while being wise is a product of experience. Age
has very little to do with this. A seventeen-year-old kid who grew up in a
war-stricken environment has much better judgment when it comes down to how to
react during war than someone who is fifty years old with no experience in war,
even if that person has read every single book on war.
9. What did
Solomon ask of God?
Solomon in
the book of Kings asked God for wisdom to be a good king. Why didn’t he ask God
to make him smarter than everyone else?
That
prompted me to see how often the word “wisdom” is mentioned in the Bible versus
the word “smart.” “Wisdom” is mentioned 219 times, while the word “smart” isn’t
used once. That’s right: not even once. The word “intelligent” is used four
times and “intelligence” five times, but “smart” isn’t used once. Maybe the
Bible is hinting for us to change what to ask for in our prayers.The ideal plan
is to work on being wise and smart. Allow your thinking to be challenged in
order to get sharper. Apply what you learn in order to turn your knowledge into
wisdom. If you know but do not do, you’re considered someone smart. If you
learn and apply that knowledge, even though you may make mistakes, you’re
working toward becoming wise. And by doing so, you will notice a difference in
the way you handle people, overcome challenges, resolve issues, manage money,
and increase your value in your occupation.
(http://phpagencyblog.com/2012/06/18/nine-differences-between-being-wise-and-smart/)
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