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2003-04-30 - 11:05 a.m.
Stupid observation of the day:
People who are smart don't spend their time trying to be smart, they spend their time doing other things.
Editorial note -
I received this response:
"Based on this, either I am not smart or I should stop going to school?"
No, this was addressed to people who spend all of their time trying to PROVE that they are smart by dispensing excessive amounts of unsolicited advice or correcting every little mistake that other people make or trying to prove in public forums that they are experts on any given subject by cutting other people down.
I had a conversation just the other day that brought this feeling up for me. I like to think of myself as a bright person, other people tell me I am so. But I don't want to compete, I want to learn and I want to share knowledge.
I don't need to prove myself to you and I don't want you to prove yourself to me. We are not here to validate each other. We, as a species, are here to be fascinated, confused, perplexed and infatuated with each other and the world.
And maybe I'm not so smart, I don't know. I'm certainly not interested in a lot of things my peers are interested in. Maybe that makes me simple.
Or maybe that makes me smarter than you.
Do you really care?
In the end we love each other, we fight we make up, we learn and eventually we turn into something else.
And it doesn't matter what aptitude we have for math, writing, biology or art.
We all have lots to learn.
Being smart is not a competition.
and
Learning is a very smart thing to do.
Additional editorial note:
I learned later that the response I received was offhand and not really serious so I've written a long rambling soapbox lecture for no good reason other than it makes me feel better and I probably should have written it in the first place. Maybe I will eat my soapbox.