Knowledge is not knowing. Put the book down and listen.
First off, there is nothing wrong with being book smart, learning new skills, or anything of the kind. What's wrong, is assuming you know shit about the world, people, or deeper thought because you could out math me, out grammar me, or any number of things I chose not to sit down and devote loads of time to. Just because you acquire new tidbits of general information doesn't mean you are suddenly filled with all the knowledge of the world. There is, in fact, a difference between being smart and being understanding or possessing the capability to look beyond the surface of things. I could learn all the different forms for writing poetry, I could read a book about understanding poetry. That doesn't mean that I am going to be able to sit down and understand it. Now I know with poetry, as with many art forms, that it's really open to interpretation in the end. The point is that, knowing the book taught way to understand poetry doesn't mean that you are capable of sitting down and understanding it through your own abilities. If you can't sit down and feel the poem or understand it on an emotional level, well, frankly, you don't understand the poem, you devalue it's purpose. Having knowledge does not mean that you are capable of deeper thought, sadly not everyone realizes this. I have been in multiple fights in my life trying to explain something only to be treated like I was the idiot, even though I have first hand experience with some of the subjects I am being told I am wrong about. There is more to the world than what is taught in a classroom or from word of mouth. You can learn the surface, you can learn the general facts, the stereotypes, but pulling actual knowledge out of something is when you try to understand it on a deeper level. When you live it. Interact with it. But most of all, know that you will never know anything completely about it. When you insist that you are right without consideration or thought to anyone else's experiences or views is when you get arrogance, not smarts. You've lost already, your mind is too limited.
"I know we're not saints or virgins or lunatics; we know all the lust and lavatory jokes, and most of the dirty people; we can catch buses and count change and cross roads and talk real sentences. But our innocence goes awfully deep, and our discreditable secret is that we don't know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don't care that we don't."Via Dylan Thomas (Stolen from Batman)
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