New poll ...just for my own curiosity.

Just a thought... don't know how many people read this blog regularly, but I do have something to ask. So check out the poll question in the side-bar to the right.

I ask because I'm on a forum where the question came up in the general-topics board. And a lot of people (especially younger members) seem to get confused with what "street-smarts" are. One of the people is a born-again Christian and posted about how God has asked her to put others before herself so that means street-smarts isn't something that she needs because she feels that she doesn't need to get ahead. (I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the picture).

Well, instead of responding on the board (which I already have twice) with my opinion - I feel I've already expressed myself plenty and decided to take here to my own blog. And trust me, I know damn well I may step on a few toes: but that forum member is being a little more than naive, IMHO.
Trying to get ahead doesn't make one a selfish person. I'm all for treating your fellow person with fairness, but that doesn't mean you need to sacrifice your own chances in life. Doesn't part of making the world a better place for everyone include making it better for yourself too? By giving that up, clearly this member is demonstrating a severe lack of "streetsmarts."

So the rundowng goes like this:
Streetsmarts - the ability to deal with life; identify your options and workarounds in real-world situations.
Booksmarts - knowing stuff; trivia; and how things work.

Having clarified these terms and establishing that neither of these facets of life involve harming anyone else for your benefit, which do you think is more important to getting around?