Is it better if a person were more street-smart? Or are book-smart people the luckiest of the bunch? And are both types of people really that much different?
Before we answer that, you need to know that nobody is only book-smart or street-smart. We’re all a unique blend of both. The more you train one type, the stronger it’ll be, but that doesn’t cancel out the other!
Now back to the “who’s better” question, the street smarts vs. book smarts debate has been around for centuries. And frankly, there’ll never be a unanimous answer to which one’s better. The answer is purely situational.
That’s why you need both types—at least the basic skills of each type. As for the differences between them, let’s break it down for you.
What Is the Difference Between Street Smarts and Book Smarts?
Each person has a unique blend of book smarts and street smarts. Some may have their book smarts as their strong suit, and vice versa.
In the end, both sides need to work together to provide the person with enough knowledge to solve problems in any situation.
Street Smarts
People who are better with street-smart skills generally prefer to learn through experience. They like to go through situations and experiences that build their skill sets and widen their knowledge base.
Book Smarts
Book-smart people, on the other hand, believe in learning from other people’s mistakes. They’re not interested in walking down a path that others have already discovered and repeating their mistakes.
Instead, they like to learn about that path from the experts who already walked through it and came out on the other side.
To sum it up, street-smart people learn from their own experiences, while book-smart people learn from those of others.
12 Differentiating Key Points Between Street Smarts and Book Smarts
To further explain the differences between people who are street-smart and book-smart, we compiled 12 key points to help differentiate between both sides.
1. Roots of Knowledge
Street-smart people trust their own experiences to be the best source of knowledge. They usually learn from the different situations they go through. This allows them to build a solid knowledge base of how things are done.
Book-smart people, on the other hand, get their knowledge from books, research, and any other trusted source of knowledge. They prefer to get their information about a topic from the experts who know it best.
2. Type of Knowledge
Street-smart people are good at understanding how things work. They prefer to gain their knowledge practically, and execution is their forte.
Book-smart people aren’t just satisfied with the how; they need to know the what and the why, too. They like to dig deep into things and fully understand them on every level.
3. General Skills
The famous saying, ”A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often better than a master of one,” fits our street-smart people perfectly.
Street-smart people are often seen as generalists. They usually know a little bit about a lot of things that are enough to get the job done. With such a huge skill set, street-smart people usually have great emotional, social, and survival skills.
People with book smarts, however, are great specialists. They’re good at understanding every aspect of one certain topic, with little knowledge about anything else. This makes them great researchers since their cognitive skills are the strongest.
4. Decision-Making Strategies
Street-smart people have mastered the art of acting without knowing every detail. That’s why street-smart people can make faster decisions without looking into it too much.
Book-smart people can’t disagree more. They can never make rash decisions without researching and understanding the pros and cons of their decision. That’s why more book-smart people tend to suffer from analysis paralysis, aka overthinking.
5. Risk-Taking Strategies
This point captures the entire essence of street-smart people’s “learning by experience” methods. If anybody is all about taking risks and just throwing themselves out there, it’s street-smart people. They consider that taking no risks is the biggest risk of all.
Book-smart people, on the other hand, do their absolute best to minimize any risks as much as possible. That’s why you’ll find them highly invested in all sides of the situation to get the best possible outcome.
6. Rule Abidance
As opposed to the previous point, this one fits book-smart people to a tee. People with book smarts don’t just follow the rules; they thrive with them. They feel the safest in a controlled, structured environment with clear rules and regulations to follow.
Street-smart people, on the other hand, would feel trapped in such a structured environment. Their take on the world is that rules are made to be broken. They believe that’s the only way they’ll learn.
7. Flexibility
Both book smarts and street smarts are flexible within a limit but in a different way
Street-smart people can flexibly act, sometimes even improvise, within situations they’ve experienced before—or at least similar to what they’ve experienced. Otherwise, if they haven’t experienced anything similar to the new situation, they know nothing about it.
Book-smart people are flexible and innovative when they come across something they’ve learned before. However, if they got hit with something new to them and they’ve never learned about it, they won’t know much about it.
8. Abstract Thinking
As we’ve mentioned above, street-smart people don’t tend to dive too deep into topics. They’re good with knowing just enough to get them through their daily struggles. That’s why they’re usually not big fans of conceptual and abstract thinking.
As for brain-smart people, abstract thinking is their strong suit. They enjoy going into deep thinking sessions and experimenting with ideas and concepts.
9. Learning Speed
They say experience is the best teacher, but they forgot to mention that it’s the slowest. Since street-smart people rely more on their experiences, they take time to learn something new. They need to fully experience a situation till the very end to learn a new concept or skill.
Book-smart people don’t need that much time. Instead of waiting to experience everything themselves, they learn from the experiences of others. That’s why book-smart people are usually fast learners.
10. Reliance on Science
People with higher levels of book smarts depend mainly on what science has to say. The only way they’ll believe something is to find scientific proof. Otherwise, if there isn’t a scientific and logical explanation for a topic, they won’t buy it.
Street-smart people are on the other side of the spectrum regarding this point. They don’t rely on science as much. They may not believe in science and scientists as much as they believe in their own experiences.
11. Spontaneity and Improvisation
Since people who are more street smart have trained themselves to become more socially aware, they’re good at thinking on their feet and improvising creative solutions to problems.
On the other hand, people with higher book smarts find it hard to improvise and not go by the book. If they experience something out of the norm, they rarely act quickly before analyzing their every move.
12. Bigger Picture Consideration
People with street smarts tend to live in the moment and focus on what’s happening in their current situation. As good as that might be, they sometimes fail to see the bigger picture.
Book-smart people are better at setting strategies, reflecting on their actions, and analyzing the outcomes and consequences. These qualities help them see the bigger picture and strategically plan their way to achieve that ultimate goal.
All in All
Whether you see yourself more in the street-smart department or find yourself perfectly suited as a book-smart person, it all boils down to the way you learn best.
Street-smart people prefer to get their hands dirty and dig out knowledge from their own experiences. Meanwhile, book-smart people know how to get the purest form of knowledge from the experts who know best.
Keep in mind that it’s crucial to have at least the basic skills of each type to get through any situation.