Smartness and a high IQ may be amazing traits, but when combined with wisdom, they usually become truly valuable. You can read here which characteristics are typical for intelligent people who lack wisdom.
In fact, intelligence is the quality that enables us to do an IQ test, more or less well. If we have a high level of intelligence, we can, for example, quickly and correctly complete a logical series of numbers without anyone telling us the underlying rule, or recognize one word in several that does not go with the others. And much more.
Those who are very intelligent usually quickly grasp the Pythagorean theorem or kinetic energy or the classical structure of a discussion. In addition, this person is usually good at putting information into context and grasping core aspects of complex contexts.
On the other hand, what does not automatically go hand in hand with high intelligence is wisdom. Wisdom enables us to use not only our intelligence but also our feelings and instincts to act and live prudently and wisely. Wisdom often grows with experience, i.e. with increasing age, but young people can be wise just as old people do not have to be.
A person who is very intelligent, but not at all wise, is often characterized by the following characteristics.
4 characteristics of people who are intelligent but not wise
1. You dismiss other people’s views without considering them.
Smart people often have reasonable views that they can justify well and logically. If they lack wisdom in addition to their intelligence, they usually consider this to be the only relevant one. They deem less reasonable or less well-founded views wrong, or at least less valuable and worth considering than perhaps the most intelligent view.
Wise people, on the other hand, are equally interested in different perspectives and opinions. They see value in the plurality and individuality of experience and human positions, and know that they can learn something from anyone, regardless of a person’s IQ, level of education, or attitude to certain issues. So wise people are generally ready to consider all views, even those that are or seem unreasonable and which they will probably never share.
2. They put statistical values and scientific theories ahead of individual experience.
Smart people are usually curious and interested in reliable data and facts. Therefore, they often know a lot, know statistics and scientific findings on one or the other question. They now usually attribute the greatest significance and authority to this knowledge – greater than personal experience – if they are intelligent but not wise.
Wise people assess the significance of research and statistics differently. With a statistical statement such as “on average, people in Germany have 1.4 children”, everyone can see immediately that this statistical value does not apply to a single life: nobody has 1.4 children. Wise people also recognize this discrepancy between scientific knowledge and the reality of life in less obvious cases – and therefore attach greater importance to individual experience. They are interested in scientific research, theories, study results and statistics and deal with them. But they are always aware that no study or statistic does justice to every individual case or applies to every person – and that some scientific results and analyzes do not capture anyone and have nothing to do with a single reality of life.
3. They define themselves by their intelligence.
Many smart, unwise people see their intelligence as an important part of their identity and self-worth. They see their smartness as something that sets them apart and makes them superior as a person to less intelligent people.
Wise people, on the other hand, see intelligence as one of many qualities that a person possesses—rather than the most important or defining one. They understand that intelligence is a human ability that enables our survival and shaped our evolutionary history, but so are skills like empathy, spreading the thumb, and digesting fruits and nuts. They recognize that this ability varies in strength in different people. But to answer the question of who they are for themselves, they care far less about their intelligence than what they think, feel, and do. And for what they live.
4. They overestimate their competencies and overlook the big picture.
Intelligent people are very receptive and can process and structure a lot of information. They often find good solutions to a wide variety of problems and are able to develop expertise in a wide variety of areas. However, if they lack wisdom alongside their intelligence, they can tend to become so immersed in their area of interest that they lose sight of the big picture, of relevance and relation.
Wise people, whose everyday life also tends to feel that what they are dealing with is of absolute importance, remind themselves from time to time of the relationship they have with their work as a part of the whole. They keep reminding themselves that the critical laws that apply to them are not designed by them or any government or employer, but are above all human beings and put them on an equal footing with ladybugs, swallows and hyacinths – because they are all living things affect equally on this earth. They remember that human classifications of right and wrong, good and bad are necessary guides for us, but may not spring from absolute truth. For this reason, wise men always maintain humility and do not claim to be better or more important than their fellow man, a trout or a crow.
Sources used: hackspirit.com, blog.neuronation.com