
Is It Worth Being Wise? - prakash
http://www.paulgraham.com/wisdom.html
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btilly
Paul's essays are often deliberate explorations of concepts that he doesn't
start off knowing the answer to. This would seem to be an example of that, and
is interesting to read as a view into how Paul thinks. That said, I think he
drew the wrong distinction here between smartness and wisdom.

The distinction that I would draw is that a smart person is someone who can
figure out the right answer, while a wise person is someone who does the right
thing. I draw the distinction this way because there are a lot of people who
_know_ what they should do, but _don't do it!_ We generally don't think of
them as wise. Conversely most of the smart people that I know are good at
figuring out things in a number of different contexts, so their ability
doesn't tend to be just a one-dimensional spike.

This ties to the common belief that wisdom has something to do with emotions.
Because inability to align emotions and actions is a common barrier to doing
what you know you should do. Note that I'm careful not to say _control_ your
emotions, because a person who keeps emotions under deliberate control is in
serious trouble when those emotions slip out anyways. And they will. Instead
the people I've known who I call wise are capable of finding ways to align
emotions and actions in such a way that they can act in accord with their
emotions yet not cause problems for them.

By contrast I tie smartness to problem solving. Someone can be really good at
solving set problems yet have no clue how to handle their emotional state.
Paul offers many good examples of this in his essay.

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Retric
There are many useful definitions of wisdom and intelligence. Another way of
looking at it was if you where able to write a book that would be transported
back in time to some historical figure what would be the most powerful things
to add to change the course of history? 30 years ago detailed instructions on
how to manufacture a modern computer would have dramatically changed things,
but 2000 years ago that would be useless. However, a basic primmer on math and
collage freshman level science could have dramatically changed history.

IMO, wisdom is the ability to take the core aspects of what humanity has
learned and put them into practice. Eat right, exercise, get enough sleep,
treat others well etc, those ideas evolve slowly over time. So, what separates
them is how quickly the information becomes outdated, 60 years ago knowing how
to make a high quality vacuum tube on the cheap would have been useful today
it's almost worthless. Knowing how to use a light switch on the other hand
seems far more basic. Or for a more complex example how to get a date has
changed little in the last 60 years even as how we network with other people
has.

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foulmouthboy
I think my favorite explanation of wisdom versus intelligence came when
reading about how D&D players should think of it: Intelligence tells you it's
raining inside. Wisdom tells you to open the umbrella.

When we get to the point that we can just download all the information we want
directly into our brains, it's going to be those with wisdom that will know
what to do with it.

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tspiteri
I see them differently. Intelligence is an ability which you can use, it is
similar to strength, so I like to think of it as brain strength. Wisdom is
your knowledge and experience. So being more intelligent gives you potential,
but you have to use your intelligence wisely to gain wisdom.

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Kilimanjaro
The wiser I become, the less money I have.

I never understood why, in my case, they were inversely proportional.

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tpyo
Does anyone what that interview is from footnote 8?

