"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
-Abraham Lincoln
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

Someone who is smart ,doesn't act arrogant and self absorbed about being a recepticle of vast amounts of knowledge. all their brain cells are firing in the correct order...

Unlike the nice, feelgood people, I define someone as smart when they can solve problems in their field. Wanna claim you are a smart mechanic? Fine. Lets see your record. Lets see what complex issues you diagnose and fix. You are an arrogant SOB? No problem. Results speak. Typical example is like the show House. He is the worst doctor a patient can have as far as bedside manner. He does have results so if I had someone like that and their results are not exceeded by their cost and they can solve more complex issues than the average, works for me.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Bingo. Anyone can memorize facts. I think that being smart involves drawing upon your collective experience and education in order to form your own solutions and opinions.

I would define smart as: "Knows when to give a damn, and does"

-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Wisdom involves several things, IMO;

LISTENING!
Accepting others' ideas that may conflict without necesarily adopting them ( Letting others speak)--How often do you hear politicians and talk-show pundits who do not let the oppostition speak?
Employing good judgment--which too often comes from living with the results of poor judgment.
Listening---We have two ears and one mouth--there is a reason for that.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Wisdom and intelligence are sometimes neighbors, rarely relatives.

A common problem with smart people who can see a solution to almost any problem is that they often think that theirs is the best solution just because they see it so clearly. There are usually many solutions to a problem and the best solution is rarely implemented. People aren't perfect, never was, never will.

You don't need to define smart people. They define themselves by what they say or don't say.

We have 7 orifices in our skull. (Well, nostrils might be two in flesh, one in bone, but oh well) All seven were designed to take in information. Only one to put information out. Might be a divinely specified ratio to observe.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K