...is not the person who knows everything there is to know.
Knowing things means you have an active mind and a good imagination.
That's nice and all, but the true weight of intelligence is in the DOING.
In a group of people stuck in the freezing rain, the smartest among them is not the one who knows how a nuclear reactor works or the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow...
The smartest among them is one who can light a match in the rain. After all, it doesn't matter how much you know if you're a frozen husk.
Let me be the first to say, I'm a fool.
Why? Because while I know a hell of a lot, I've done very, very little. When you know a lot, but do nothing with that knowledge, it makes you a fool.
Find someone who DOES things with their knowledge, no matter how little they actually know, and you'll find the smartest man in the room.
God bless!
Wait- book learning isn't intelligence. The "smartest" in OP is conflating academic learning (which may or may not reflect word smarts) with practical application which does require the ability to adapt to be rules and situations, which is a definition of intelligence quotient.
Experience is observed learning, which is Wise and more valuable in the specific situation that was observed, but it is still the Application to New Situations that is true intelligence. The American Ingenuity that has made this country advance and prosper beyond all others.
The wisest will learn from others, the most ingenious will take the learnings and solve new problems. With the coming implosion, some of these will be old problems that we're going to have to face again. Together we conquer.