Depending on your viewpoint, smart may refer more to common sense, or ability to figure out a situation quickly, and knowledgeable may refer more to experience and the sum total of things you know about.

A Knowledgeable person may be the person that is required to to provide information on various forms of shelter, food preservation, clothing and tools, and a smart person may be the person required to decide whether to Bug-in or Bug-out in any given situation.

Smart is the opposite of stupid, where the opposite of knowledge is ignorance. An ignorant person can be taught. A stupid person maybe not so much.
Hard to say what the differences might be regarding prepping though. I suspect that ignorant and/or stupid people simply won't prep or even understand the value in prepping.

I think that we might be splitting hairs here especially with regard to prepping. I tend to lean towards Greenguy's assessment. Smart is usually associated with intelligence where as knowledgeable is usually associated with knowledge gained through experience. You would want both smart and knowledgeable people as members of your group.

I believe "intelligence" is the level of capacity to learn... to absorb knowledge. On the other hand "smart" is the ability to APPLY knowledge in a practical and meaningful way. There is a WORLD of difference between them.

I would want a Knowledgable person to remove my appendix post SHTF rather than a Smart person....... 😉

That's for sure. Except as long as that knowledge was not gained by the person watching a lot of YouTube videos on the subject! 😆

To me Smart is knowing how and when to apply your Knowledge in real life situations.
Henry

I tend to refer to Dungeon and Dragon thinkology, Intelligence, Is knowing how to do it. Wisdom, Is knowing when to do it. 😕 😯 :ugeek:

Hum. Did not take you for a D&D fan Ranger.

Played A,D&D in the late 80's while in the military, My two favourite personnas were a Magic user and, well, could you guess what the other one was?

Smart is the opposite of stupid, where the opposite of knowledge is ignorance. An ignorant person can be taught. A stupid person maybe not so much.

I agree with that part of your statement, and I think it's a great explanation.

Hard to say what the differences might be regarding prepping though. I suspect that ignorant and/or stupid people simply won't prep or even understand the value in prepping.

I've got a different take here, though. A smart person can learn, but they're not much help initially if they don't know anything. A 'stupid' (I'm loathe to use that word, so maybe 'less intelligent' is more apt) person may not learn as quickly but, unless they're severely intellectually challenged, can become knowledgeable. So I'd say that you're best off being knowledgeable, regardless of your intelligence.

I think that smart and stupid is too simplistic. As humans, we're all reasonably intelligent and capable of learning new things. How easily we learn isn't just a function of our intelligence, though, but also our aptitude for learning and the way the materials are presented. I'm reasonably intelligent, but I can't learn very well from listening to someone lecture. I'm much better at learning by reading, and I'm at my best when I can actually do it, whether it be math problems or making something. I've known many people who are very intelligent but who can't actually do much and I've known many 'stupid' people who are very knowledgeable and able to learn quite well. My mother's family is an interesting dichotomy. It seems that they are either very book-smart or very handy, and it's virtually mutually exclusive, but I'd say that they're all smart in their own way.

The quality I think we're stabbing at here is "common sense". Here's some definitions:

Defined by Merriam-Webster as, "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts." Thus, "common sense" (in this view) equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as, "the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way".

I would stay close to those that have common sense, and avoid those that don't. Common sense is something that transcends the boundaries of smart/stupid/knowledge/ignorance. The problem is that common sense isn't all that "common" anymore. It's also subjective, but can sometimes be taught, such as the simple act of lifting the toilet seat while standing to pee. It's common sense to me, but my two boys think their "aim" is good enough that they don't see the need. Sadly, it's usually mom that discovers the truth. A sad, innocent victim of a lack of common sense.

I asked this question as someone that barely knows me (the person that runs my CBT class) told me that I was knowledgeable not smart. I had always thought they were the same thing, you had to be smart to gain the knowledge.

Common sence, what a stupid phraze, for what is common in one area has no sence in another. Most city born and raised, will have no wilderness sence, and the opposite is also true. Common sence is what is common to the majority of people in that area.