I am the smartest person in the world!

A couple of years ago I asked brooklyn, “Do you know anyone smarter than you?” For some reason the verbal exchange that followed has stuck with me and from time to time it busts the meniscus of my subconscious to float around in my waking thoughts. Sometimes the memory is triggered by events and sometimes it just randomly materializes.

Brooklyn is a smooth cat and I’ve always admired him. Back in high school he was in all the accelerated programs and always got A’s without exerting too much effort. He’s well read, well socialized, and fairly athletic. He writes poetry, not that amorphous juvenile crap, but well thought out quality poetry that makes use of form, rhythm, and other literary devices. He’s just shy of obtaining a black belt in karate and despite eating loads of crap he has no body fat to speak of. Brooklyn stands roughly 5-foot-10 and weighs in at 150-ish. Long, straight black hair obscures his Vietnamese influenced features. In my opinion, his pensively mellow manner is enhanced by his open-mindedness and observant nature.

I acutely remember we were in the 7-11 on the corner of Jewel and Sheridan. The standard green/red/orange color motif engulfed everything around us. We were hungry and the hodge-podge bouquet of options at the convenience store seamed so right. I picked up a random protein bar and was analyzing the macronutrient breakdown as we discussed which old high school friends were smarter than others. Then the question arose…

“Do you know anyone smarter than you?”

“No. How ‘bout you? Do you know anyone smarter than you?” he countered.

“No,” I answered honestly.

We weren’t being cocky or snide; we were being completely honest and completely confident. Initially I was surprised by my answer and the truth behind it, but as we further probed the subject we realized that our ideas of “intelligence,” while similar, were not identical. Obviously, how could I be smarter than brooklyn if he was simultaneously smarter than me? There are too many facets of intelligence, logic, physics, literary, historical, inter-personal, emotional, physical well-being, intuition, book smart, street smart, theoretical, practical, romantic, mechanical, artistic, etc. Just because one of our friends was a mathematic wiz didn’t mean he was smarter than us since he sucked at socializing. We concluded that “intelligence” is completely subjective. The commonality between brooklyn and me is self-confidence. I believe that if I apply myself I could be a masterful woodworker, a stellar standup comedian, a prominent politician, a first-rate theoretical physics dude, a high-priced shrink, a praised cardiologist, the best father Pseudo-Afro(LC) could ask for, or whatever the hell I wanna be! Unfortunately, nobody can be everything all the time. The catch is limited recourses such as time and energy, so I have to prioritize. Where is my energy best spent? I decide that. I decide what aspects of life I want to excel in; I choose those aspects for a reason; those reasons define my idea of “intelligence.”

In the spirit of field research, I’ve asked this question of other friends and acquaintances and I’ve noticed a slight trend. People who are self-confident and comfortable with who they are usually claim that they are the smartest person they know, or among the top. People who are a self-doubting believe there are plenty of smarter individuals out there. I guess this is really no big surprise, but the methodology used to arrive at the conclusion is kinda interesting. In this case, the journey is a destination in and of itself.

Are you the smartest person you know?
...and so it was written, shenry at 7/24/2002 02:23:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .