So I decided to Google it… yep. Nerds are socially awkward and don’t know how to punch hard and sometimes they do things like lock their keys in their cars. (“See! They’re actually IDIOTS! We’re the smart ones!”)

So, it’s pretty simple. “Street smarts” means whatever will make the ignorant person feel better about themselves. They’re the people who invented the phrase, after all.

I could post the cognitive bias terms for it here and all, but I’ve undoubtedly already been written off as a stupid bookworm. Ah, well.

still staying pretty general….
Street smart is knowledge from live experience or use of knowledge during a live experience
while,
Book smart is knowledge from experience that you read or facts the have been figured and recorded, and being able to use or recite.

I got 48 the second time I took it, which doesn’t bode well for my ability to increase my score.

Um,

I think I agree fully with you. There are different types of intelligence. Talking in these particular terms only serves to obfuscate matters.

Ex,

Yes, yes I am.

Ashley,

See that’s the thing: I want to agree with you, but I think the ‘function in the real world’ is a very vague concept that I’m not sure I understand. Perhaps it’s common sense, but I tend to think you mean something else by it. And it’s been my experience that it’s rare for people to possess either.

I guess I don’t have book smarts.

I always thought people used the term “street smarts” to make themselves (or others) feel better about themselves. Like a backlash to school making you feel like an idiot. But then they go out of their way to say you can only have one or the other (book/street smarts), but you can’t have both. I did well in school, so apparently that meant I lacked common sense. This made no sense to me. That’s like saying people who can do math can’t find their way around a city. Completely illogical. But what can you expect from people who lack book smarts?

Daniel seems to be talking about fluid intelligence. I read an article yesterday (can’t find it) that talked about new studies showing this type of intelligence (the kind you use to reason and come up with things on your own…bad explanation on my part) can be exercised and increased.

Also, surviving in the woods could rely on book smarts. If someone is familiar with plantlife and knows what to eat and what not to, how is that not “book smarts”?

I do think there are different types of intelligence, and a lot of time people confuse intelligence or lack of it with other character or personality traits. But I don’t think it’s split into book vs street smarts.