One of my friend told me that I was a life smart person - someone whom nagivates life with the upmost efficient way -, I had always considered myself as a book smart person, I like to learn from theory and come up with solution using whatever knowledge that I’ve acquired thus far in my life. Before, I could deny that claim, I thought “maybe he has a point”, so today I’m going to attempt to find a conclusive idea on what kind of smart am I.

Disclaimer: This writing is not the opinion of a cognitive psychology expert nor does he have any comprehensive knowledge of psychology. Rather just an attempt to understand the way he thinks.

Breaking down my thought process

The reason why I initially want to deny his claim is because, I’ve always centralized my thoughts according to facts, theory and assumptions which I gain from reading and just experiencing life. Therefore, streetsmart or lifesmart is the last category I would label myself. However, I’ll try to make this claim a true as possible given my context.

In order to do this, I need to understand how my thought process works, I’d simply put it in an algorithmic manner (Let say I have an input of new information):

    1) I look the input in memory, If I find it, I stop.
    2) If not, then I'll try to extract the closest memory that can possibly resembles the input.
    3) then, I try to create a reasoning how this old memory relates to the input.
    4) If it is relatively false, I repeat back to step 2.
    5) If it is true, I stop.

The above is how I believe my train of thought operates. Though it may be wrong, let’s move further from here. Next, we need to recognize, what makes a person lifesmart. According to this1, street-smart person is defined as a human ​having the knowledge and experience that is needed to deal with the difficulties and dangers of life in a big city, while book-smart person is a human having a lot of academic knowledge learned from books and studying, but not necessarily knowing much about people and living in the real world. So, which category do I fit the most?

People that know me in real life would vouch me as a book-smart person because I usually spend most of my time learning new things online, this varies to education, health, video games, academics… etc. But according the definition, I might aswell be fit as a street-smart person because I navigate myself through personal and external experiences. We’re in a grey spot here. Before deciding which labels I fit into, how about we delve to some theory of different types of intelligent (in an attempt to understand how professional categorises our thinking style).

Recognizing a few phenotype of smartness

I could’ve chosen a more recent source but for the purpose of this post it might just do it. According to a Harvard psychologist and professor, Howard Gardner, in his book “Frames of Mind” dated on 1983 states there are 8 different type of intelligents. Im too lazy to write down each of them so I’ll be crediting a CNBC article.

In summary on a scale of 1 to 5:

    1) Spatial intelligence: The ability to think abstractly and in multiple dimensions. Scoring a five means you have a large capacity for spatial reasoning and conceptualization.

    2) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: The ability to use your body in a way that demonstrates physical and athletic prowess.

    3) Musical intelligence: Sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody and timbre. This may entail the ability to sing and/or play musical instruments

    4) Linguistic intelligence: Sometimes called “language intelligence,” this involves sensitivity to the meaning of words, the order among words, and the sound, rhythms, inflections and meter of words.

    5) Logical-mathematical intelligence: The ability to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations and investigate issues scientifically

    6) Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to interact effectively with others. Sensitivity to others people’s moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations.

    7) Intrapersonal intelligence: Sensitivity to one’s own feelings, goals and anxieties, and the capacity to plan and act in light of one’s own traits.

    8) Naturalistic intelligence: The ability to understand the nuances in nature, including the distinction between plants, animals, and other elements of nature and life

Therefore, in this theory of intelligence, one’s intellect isn’t black and white. However, a person may posses one or more dominance on these traits. To fit in my argument, the category (street/book-smart) that I fit in must be one of my dominant intelligence area.

Reaching a conclusion

We’ve gone so far yet reached so little. Thus, it begs the question, What am I? (wait, lets not go there…) okay okay, so am I street or book smart? From all eight smartness, I guess spatial, logical and intrapersonal intelligence are my strengths. Of course, I do have some capacity for other types of intelligence >:( . I’m far from a streetsmart person, despite having plans for future, a lot of logic is going on BTS2, backup plans among backup plans, and a lot of reading to understand different perspectives. It does not come naturally to me that I’m able understand the world on my own without referencing to others. Although, being a booksmart person gives a negative connotation, that way of comprehending us is a bit naive. Everyone is intelligent on their own ways, as long as all of us are contributing member of society, I believe it doesn’t hurt to be a lil bit different :)

    [1] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com
    [2] Back the stage