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childofbaud comments on What Intelligence Tests Miss: The psychology of rational thought - Less Wrong
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Or the other way around - sometimes the 'book smart - street smart' is a put down of the geek as well, not just used against the non-geek.
People said of my brother 'How can someone so smart be so dumb?'. He was both book smart and street smart. In fact he lived to 60 without having a wife, a house, a car, a permanent job, more belongings then he could carry and so on. He was never an alcoholic, addict, gambler or anything like that. He spent his life as a nomad and came to no harm. He knew his streets. He was almost saintly in the way he treated others. I never heard him say something unkind in his whole life. He had a very high IQ and knew a great deal fact-wise. His memory was good. He played an excellent game of chess. What he didn't have was any sense of perspective or way of making plans that would work out or way of accurately judging others and so on. He had no way of using his book smarts or his street smarts. I have often wondered if there was a word for what his was missing in his makeup. Anyone have a word?
Presumably the people who said those things about your brother might have said similar things about Socrates, Buddha and Jesus. All three of those personages have had their share of critics during their lifetimes. Few of those critics' names or ideas (to say nothing of their wives, houses and belongings) survive to the present day. The few that did are mostly preserved and presented as negative examples and antagonists.
Based on the description provided, I am not sure I would say there was something missing in your brother's make-up; no major desirable traits, anyhow. Have you ever considered that your brother's sense of perspective may have far surpassed your own?
As to words, how about 'ascetic'?
Well actually no. If he had had a sense of perspective then I think he might well have been ascetic. Of course, being my brother I had a lot of respect and love for him, but I have to be realistic about his abilities.