Common sense:- I grew up on a farm and went to school in a small town. Every kid I knew had enough common sense to dress warm whenever it got cold out. Now I live in the city. I find that it's not unusual to see "city" kids walking along the street in -20 degree weather and blowing snow, wearing nothing but jeans, t-shirt and running shoes, shivering and shaking like a dog shittin' razor blades. I've never seen "country" kids who lacked the common sense to dress warm when it got cold out.
Stupid:- On the range, we once had a customer load the last round of a 50 round box into a revolver. He closed the cylinder in the wrong position and then tried to shoot at his target. The first two tries, the hammer fell on empty chambers. He then turned the gun, looked down the barrel to see what was wrong, then pulled the trigger two more times. The nearest range officer grabbed the gun away from him, pointed it downrange and squeezed the trigger. That .357 worked just fine. The customer hasn't been back, which is a good thing. He's too stupid to be near guns or anything more lethal than a sponge. Common sense is using your head as more than a place to carry your hat and stupidity is failing to use common sense.

I stand by what I said in an earlier post, we are splitting hairs. One thing that this post has done is shown that the words smart and Knowledgeable can mean slightly different things to different people. In other words there is no definitive definition for the difference between the two words. However Oldschool I would definitely say that they guy who made the statement to you is a jerk and should not be running any class. Teachers can never get students to learn by saying they are not smart. If the student doesn't grasp the concept then another teaching approach is called for. We all learn in different ways a good teacher knows that. So I guess you could say that the person running your class was knowledgeable on the subject but is not a smart teacher.

Thanks ICRCC
It was my fault. I think i am the only one in the class that does not have a university degree. I disagreed with the rationale that just because someone has a degree doesn't make them smart. I believe my comment was something to the effect "I think I am pretty smart about most things". Before I could finish with "inspite of not having gone to university", I was "corrected" and told that I was not smart just knowledge. 🙂

I've met you, oldschool, and you seemed plenty smart to me.

I've also been to university and you most definitely don't have to be smart to get a degree.

I've met you, oldschool, and you seemed plenty smart to me.

I've also been to university and you most definitely don't have to be smart to get a degree.

aw thank you

The teacher was right but for the wrong reason. Mind you it was the comments on here that made me realize what good is knowledge if you don't use it in practical ways. I have the knowledge of how to start a fire without a lighter, I even have a striker and I would like to think I could do it but I have never actually tried. - not smart

Unfortunately I was in the same boat at one time, to the point that I almost believed that they were right. Except one teacher, Mr Broad, my science teacher in 8 th grade. He was the only one that beileved in me, and saw through my ADD. They didnt know I had it, for they never really knew at that time what it really was. As far as an IQ test, I have been rated between 120-143 depending on when they took it and what I had to drink. Caffine drove it down and alcool (1-2oz) brought it back up. ADD and ADHD are in the same boat but useing different paddles. ADD people, their minds are going hyper speed, ADHD people, every thing is in hyperdrive. For me to pass a test in college, I would first go to the bar and have one shot of rum, this would have me calmed down enough to be able to think slowly enough to figure out the technical equations that were before me. Some equations took 2-3 pages of work to get the answer. The other side effect off ADD, is a short memory, and only the most visible things are remebered, like faces but not names and imagination is through the roof.
Being smart and ADD, is like standing in the Twilight zone. 😈

University / College - Professor - Student = Gobblygoog..

Some of the smartest people I know never went beyond High School, some of the others made it through University. You could be very smart in areas that are obscure and nobody knows about, say for example Light Theory or Inorganic Chemistry but not be able to hold a 5 minute conversation outside of that area or field of expertise. Does that make you smart or knowledgeable?

Personally I prefer generalists, general knowledge, general common sense with the ability to learn, they are the people I like to be with! Not the College Professor, who is brilliant in English Literature, who puts everyone down for not being as smart as they are, de-powering people by the day.

O Wait.. those examples were my ex in laws, ho hum.. Two egg heads who were seriously cracked.

Having worked with several engineers I have come to the conclusion that all engineers are knowledgeable but the older engineers are smart enough to know that they don't know everything.

A simple rule I have used when assigning different tasks to workers is, give the hardest task to the laziest worker because he/she will figure out the easiest way to do it.

While education does have it's merits, unfortunately some (not all) highly educated people have yet to learn 'how to connect the dots' using past experiences when encountering a complex problem. Applying the KISS principal to almost anything is just plain smart. I have had the misfortune of working with some engineers that would make Rube Goldberg proud! 😆

In a SHTF scenario I would prefer to be teamed up with smart people who have acquired enough knowledge to have a good base of experience to draw from. That type of person is able to view a new problem and draw from acquired knowledge to come up with a smart solution for the problem.