What makes a person smart?

Question

What do you think the word 'smart' means? Who deserves that title? Do you think being smart is an opinion or what? Discuss.

Answer 1

Being able to learn...their intelligence quota

Answer 2

I use the term intelligent.

It is not a simple issue.  Intelligent people often do really dumb things.    But, intelligent people learn from mistakes, and dumb people keep repeating mistakes.  Unless the intelligent person is mentally ill.  Some mentally ill people are very intelligent.

Your intelligence can be measured by an IQ test.   Your IQ score is the single most reliable predictor of success in life.  There are other predictors, but none as effective as IQ.  Your intelligence is predominantly determined by genetics, but the evironment has some influence.  Egalitarians want you to believe that intelligence is primarily a result of environmental experiences, but that is nonsense, and has been proven so.  

Since the beginning of social engineering in America, an increasing number of people have jobs that depend on the idea that their changing a people's environment wil enhance their intelligence.  It has been 40+ years and....not much change.

Intelligent people tend to produce intelligent children.  Dumb people tend to produce dumb children.  Mentally ill people produce children prone to mental illness.  Athletic people tend to produce athletic children.

There is some room for environmental shaping, but not a lot!  I encourage my grandchildren to look at themselves and our family, and try to select mates that offset our weaknesses.  If one family is very intelligent but perhaps a little emotionally volatile, a choice of mate should emphasize emotional stability before intelligence.  

People don't want to admit it but much of who we are and how we behave is genetically determined.  Schutzhund dogs are judged on a number of traits, conformation,(bone, muscle, movement.), intelligence, temperment(emotional stability-neither shy nor vicious), courage, hardness(does a blow just make the dog fight harder?), resilience( does the dog take a blow and not let it change its behavior?), etc.   All  of these traits, and more, are selected through breeding.  The biological laws are universal to animals and plants.

You cannot make a dumb dog intelligent.  You cannot make an intelligent dog dumb.  You can s***w either dog up.  I have seen intelligent dogs that were trained by people who didn't know what they were doing.  I've watched people unknowingly train their dog to run from them.  I've watched dogs train people.

You use the intelligence that you are given and use it the best you can in the situation that you are in.  That is the only  "smart" thing to do.

Answer 3

A SMART person knows right from wrong--how to make the right decision--is smart enough to know how to respect people and be courteous. A smart person does his work without complaining and a smart person learns how to listen and keep his mouth shut. He knows how to stay out of trouble. He is smart with his money--he is smart enough to save and never lend or borrow anything at all. He is smart enought to say thank you and No and I'm sorry. A smart person knows how to get along in life. A smart person knows he is responsible for his own actions.A smart person knows how to smile and just be nice.

Answer 4

Smart people know things about stuff and they tend to know how to do things.  Some people are smart on several matters and others but  a few. Smart people tend to read and they seek experiences that enhance their knowledge.

Answer 5

Being able to retain info. Being able to write out formulas and paragraphs

Answer 6

Common sense!That's what makes you smart.the ones that can see the consequences of their actions ,people that are able to live a life to its fullest and are eventually able to look back and have fewer regrets than the next guy.that's what smart means,you are able to make the best of what you have and make it work for your own life!

Answer 7

I think people often misuse the word 'smart'. I have oftentimes been labeled with the word as a result of high knowledge-based test scores, but I question that statement with the idea that the scores did not demonstrate how smart I was, just how much initiative I had to study. To be smart, then, is not reliant on knowledge; rather, it is to have a strong capacity for understanding, perhaps wisdom. Anyone can pick up a book and memorize and recite facts, but not everyone can grasp and apply concepts with ease. I think that's what constitutes being smart.