There are lots of smart people in the world, but far less who are wise. Academia is full of extremely bright people who are world-class experts in this or that narrow subject, but amazingly naïve about the world as a whole. The upper ranks of business are full of smart people who understand complex management subjects, but who can’t even keep their own family relationships healthy. Politics, at least at the higher levels, has lots of people who are smart enough to survive in the complex and cutthroat world of national government, but not wise enough to be true statesmen.
People who are smart know a lot, and have the ability to do very complex things. But people who are wise know what is and isn’t worth doing. We have always had enough smart people in the population, but we have always been woefully short of the wise.
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