Knowledge: Book Smarts or Street Smarts

"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge."
-Confucius

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge."
-Benjamin Disraeli

Merriam-Webster's definition of knowledge is: "a (1) : the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (2) : acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique b (1) : the fact or condition of being aware of something (2) : the range of one's information or understanding c : the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning : COGNITION d : the fact or condition of having information or of being learned; a person of unusual knowledge." It also says "the sum of what is known : the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind." Wikipedia's definition of knowledge is: "Knowledge is information of which a person, organization or other entity is aware. Knowledge is gained either by experience, learning and perception or through association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose."

My question is though, how much of what we know comes from book smarts or street smarts? To me, street smarts is the more valuable one. Now, I'm not saying that book smarts isn't useful. It's extremely useful. But there are things street smarts teaches a person that book smarts can never teach. I believe that each contributes a great deal to the knowledge a person has, but to me, it's how the person uses that knowledge, whether it's book smarts or street smarts, that shows the person true knowledge on the subject. Knowledge is a powerful thing, but it's how you use it that counts.

Obviously, being street smart is having the ability to learn things from life and from experiences. When you are street smart, you have good judgment on life situations, other people, and yourself. You are sensitive to environment and quick to adapt to it. Simply put, you have some common sense. People who are sensitive to others are more likely to be listened to than people who are rude, cruel, and mean to others. There's a time and place for rudeness, cruelty, and being mean, and a person with street smarts is more likely to know when those times are and when they are not.

Both street smarts and book smarts have value. Some say that they balance each other out. The people I've met who have all of one type of smarts and not the other generally are not well-informed in certain aspects, which eventually becomes evident and is a deficit in personal, business, or social situations. You need to be able to survive, not be taken advantage of, and have common sense to make it in this world. People make mistakes in life and learn from them (hopefully), but like I said, it's how you apply that knowledge (book or street smarts) that counts.