What's more important to have, book knowledge or street smarts?

Answer 1

BOTH if you can manage that.
I have lived almost on street, picked up a lot there.
have gotten some schooling, picked up whatever I could.
still learning.
(right now, I need both.)
go to school, spend some time working with a community center and learn from the kids & adults that pass through. ask a lot of questions. design questionaire, about street smarts.
use findings from that and your personal experience in street,
to write a paper in appropriate class in a social-cultural class.
cannot make it without street smarts, but can flounder without book smarts often for too long. don't get stuck in streets.
hope this helps somehow.

Answer 2

I don't know. I think they are both important to have. Of course, that depends on your situations. People say that I'm book smart but not street smart (although, I beg to differ; I think I have both :-) where my friend is street smart, but not book smart. If you aren't going into a career or your life doesn't require you to know "who the 30th president of the US was?" or stuff like that, then I wouldn't think you really need book smarts. You just might look like a fool when you play Trivial Pursuit with your friends. However, EVERYONE needs street smarts. I don't think I need to explain that. So, I guess probably street smarts is more important to have, but I think that book knowledge is important, too.

Answer 3

Without a doubt, book knowledge. Street smarts you inevitably get just by being alive--the longer you live, the more street smarts you'll eventually learn.

However, there are things you can learn in books that you'll never just "figure out on your own"--stuff that's non-obvious and not intuitive but true. That's the stuff you'll never learn just by "being alive" and accumulating experiential knowledge.

Of course, your question asks "what's more important"--without qualifying exactly what you're talking about. More important ... for what? Bare minimum survival, or to thrive and get the most out of life?

Street smarts are necessary for survival, but book knowledge is necessary for truly living your life to the fullest. Lower primates "get by" with the animal kingdom equivalent of "street smarts." We're humans--we should aspire to be better than a damn chimp.

Answer 4

Street smarts.

Answer 5

If I HAD to choose one, it'd be street smarts, but you really should have SOME books smarts, if for no other reason than to be competitive!

Answer 6

book knowledge because you could beat soomeone else in a battle of witts. you need to have a little bit of street smart

Answer 7

street smarts are way more important

Answer 8

street smarts forsure unless its a book about street smarts.

Answer 9

I think it is good to have a bit of both

Answer 10

you need to have a least a little bit of both.