Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would certainly agree! - Internet's Tad

What about people who share stupid ideas? Like Free Enegery, most conspiracy theories, many political statements, etc etc... - Internet's Tad

Robert, I like this and totally agree :) - directeur from NoiseRiver

Tad: even those people are still smarter than people who tell you about what Britney Spears did last night. - Robert Scoble

You could replace "celebrities" in that sentence with "names of people". In other words, it's ideas and concepts that are important, not egos. Even "nobodies" can have egos. Narcissism shuts out the world beyond the self, we can't learn if we are always holding up a mirror, never looking beyond it. - Jason Wehmhoener

My dad once told me that even the dumbest person in the world can teach you something because he probably knows something you don't. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Smart people listen more than they talk. - Randy Hall

To me the smart people are those that make a well-reasoned argument for and idea and then do two things. 1. Have the guts to put it out there to the world and 2. Have the guts to change their mind if they're wrong (or hold their ground when they know they're right) - Morgan

I think it all depends on the topic you're discussing. I'd say someone is smart if she can engage with you on the discussion and make you think about it from a different angle. - Bruno Pedro

Jason: it's one thing if I tell you "Doug Engelbart had dinner at the Ritz last night." It's a whole nother thing if I tell you "Doug Engelbart told me that xxxx idea is interesting and he's working on making that better." - Robert Scoble

I absolutely agree, Randy. - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

Duncan for example is a smart guy, but still talks about celebrities, so it's possible to do both and still be smart - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Which reminds me I need to talk to you about an 'idea' at blogher. ok. not really...more about which cam to get for the conventions. lol - Erin @queenofspain

I agree... This is especially obvious here in LA... although sometimes the celeb mention is the nature of the business -- or at least mention of -- as Calacanis would say -- "webebrities." - Andy Sternberg

Jason: that's true. I have yet to meet someone who is able to communicate (I have a friend with a mentally retarded son who isn't able to communicate, so we'll leave him out of this) who I couldn't learn something from. Randy: exactly. When I fail as an interviewer it isn't because I'm listening, it's probably cause I'm talking. - Robert Scoble

Andy: when you talk to the smartest people in Hollywood they talk to you about ideas. Trends. People's work. They don't talk about "I saw Tom Cruise at dinner last night" or "did you see what they said about Oprah in the tabloids?" - Robert Scoble

Robert: I agree. The point I was trying to make is that we can learn something from almost everybody, even those who we may think know less then us. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

I think one can be smart and still talk about "Weird Al" Yankovic, because he's smart. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF from NoiseRiver

Dobromir: Duncan's best work is when he talks about ideas. That's why I love Duncan, cause he tells me who has the most interesting ideas, and he's very willing to debate ideas (I've debated a few with him). - Robert Scoble

I think people can be both highly intelligent and pretty stupid at the same time. Robert Anton Wilson said it better than I can, "When dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases." And that doesn't apply to just religious dogma - any kind including political, scientific, cultural, etc. - Internet's Tad

Robert Anton Wilson++ - Jason Wehmhoener

this is a cool thread! we need a lightbulb "intelligence meter" on FF - users vote on how smart you are based on your posts... bulb gets brighter with more votes! - Susan Beebe

Susan: fantastic idea! Now that's smart. - Bruno Pedro

I have a theory that being smart is simply a matter of the attention that you give somthing. Granted, Nobel Prize winning physicists dont grow on trees. - Roberto Bonini

smart to me is someone who knows what they know but more importantly knows what they don't know - too many intelligent people who never make it to smart because they are too busy broadcasting what they know - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

That would give credence to the old saying “if smarts was electricity that boy couldn’t light up a 10 watt bulb. “ - Moved to Facebook

Social media is about inclusion, don't alienate too much with your labels and boxes - Michael W. May from twhirl

I've found smart people treat being smart like fight club: rule number one is you don't talk about being smart. Rule number two is you don't talk about being smart. To Jason Wehmhoener's point, smart people don't spend their time making a point of how they're wrapped up in smart things or "look what a good person I am for talking to x or doing y." - Mark Trapp

Smart people usually start talking by conditioning everything - and the first condition is for them to say they are not an expert ... - LPH™ and his dog P™

How do you know that someone isn't smart? - mjc from twhirl

Smart folks understand questions are important, they are not afraid to admit ignorance and appreciate that learning is a process not an event. - Dave Martin

LPH: hmmm, the ultra smart like Douglas Engelbart (who really is the true visionary I've spent time with) just paint pictures in your mind of how the world will be someday. He never said he was expert at something, just talked about how this new world would work. I could listen to that guy for hours. At 82 he's easily the smartest person I've met. - Robert Scoble

Michael: that's an interesting question. The biggest way I've found? The only skill not smart people have is in ripping down other people's ideas, or, worse, trying to rip down other people altogether. - Robert Scoble

Robert, put it another way: smart people talk about the world that could be, not that the world that is? - Mark Dykeman

"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." - Donald Foster - Roberto Bonini

Smart people simply can get the job done faster and pay attention to the hidden details that others would miss. I still don't know how to best test for it, though. - Ben Parr

smart people are visionaries, humble and most likely pious too. Take a look at the peoples who are deemed as being smart. These are some of the comman attributes of these type of people.! - Peter Dawson

I think it can go both ways-Charlie Rose talks about both-ideas are great, but what is with the people behind those ideas - that's very interesting! I also think its a natural human instinct to talk about others - it depends on the context. "I saw Tom Cruise last night" is the lowest common denominator. Inquiring about the dynamic of Shell's latest barrage of public vitriol and the work ethic of others in the Valley are spurned from natural human curiosity that we all share, whether we ask it or not. - j sven

+1 for Paul - Steven Hodson

Robert: ”Smart” here as different from ”Intelligent” – I have one story that will help us out here to identify a smart person. I had a friend at high school that knew he was not that intelligent, but he was smart: - he used to research old exams to see what the previous year tests would possibly cover on the upcoming exams. He used to collect all class notes from the top “dedicated” colleagues that were willing to share the notes. He would then select the top 10 of about 20 topics that could come up on the exams. This guy passed always and with the minimum needed to advance. What he did in my opinion was that he OPTIMIZED all his capacity to achieve one goal and that as it. He knew his weakness so well that he found ways to overcome them. He went from high school to university and to MBA: he travel to Europe for about a year and returned to get the job he wanted. - Joao

@susanbeebe: I dunno, I'd feel pretty hurt when the system took away my lightbult entirely. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF from NoiseRiver

@regila: all this for a "bob"? ;-) - directeur from NoiseRiver

I remember my dad once telling me what Eleanor Roosevelt said... "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." - Brian Sloane

the first sign that someone is really smart... they will tell you they're not but they will show you they are. - Scott Lockhart

I'm not saying I'm particularly smart, but I truly find celeb gossip one of the most uninteresting things I can think of. - Ian May

I think that smart people are the people that get things done. Imagine two people that have never heard or met each other and both of them come up with the exact same brilliant idea. One person brings the brilliant idea to a reality, while the other person doesn't. Which person is smarter? - Rishabh Mishra (p248) from NoiseRiver

Plug for the "highfalutin" room: http://friendfeed.com/rooms... if you want to talk about things with depth - Ňicķ

maybe true...but everyone is smart in their own right. you might be a social media whiz but not know anything about putting in kitchen cabinets. I'm a firm believer that everyone has their sweet spots in terms of knowledge. The really smart ones, just take the time to expand that sweet spot so it's more than just a spot and more like an area. - Don Martelli

I think a smart person can talk about both. That way he/she can converse with all people and not make anyone feel less smart than them. - Adrienne Van Houten

Adrienne: I agree with that. But smart people never start out that way. - Robert Scoble

What an awful generalization. That's how I know when someone is smart. When he doesn't make an implied generalization like "stupid people talk about celebrities". - Jay Cruz

smart people think through questions and give full answers. who talks to you about angelina jolie? i agree anybody asking scoble about that is "not as intelligent," but probably nice people...unless they have no idea who you are....maybe they ask you these questions: "is veronica belmont really cute in person? or is kevin rose really a ladies man?" however, smart people are not always smart in all aspects of their lives... - Pokai

"Smart people talk about ideas. Common people talk about things. Mediocre people talk about people." -Jules Romains - Joe Lencioni

@Jay: You spelled know wrong. - Daniel Smith

For the record, that was a joke ;) - Daniel Smith

Thank's @Daniel Smith - Jay Cruz

You know when someone is smart when they know what they're talking about and they have a good understanding. "Smart" people grasp things better and/or have ideas. - Kevin Porter from twhirl

Smart is not about opinions ("Stupid ideas"). You can be smart and have different beliefs. I'm wondering if they are "smart" conversations or just engaging conversations. I'm much more interested in sharing ideas than sports scores, gossip, or transitory circumstances. - Barb Gonzalez

Ugh. Most of these comments seem to prescribe behavior to those who are "smart" - one of the only commonalities I've ever seen of truly smart people is that they make their own rules. To say they only talk about X not Y or they listen more than they talk or any other behavioral observation misses the mark with me. Smart people don't subscribe to other peoples' ideas of what they should be. - Lucretia Pruitt

Smart people realize how little they know but have no need to try and convince others that they know a lot. - Dossy Shiobara

Scoble, no one is "smart" or an "expert." It doesn't really matter at all. The only thing that matters is how people preceive someone to be. My blog, http://onlyjames.com/ is constantly growing, so I believe people to think I am smart. Then again, I might be a complete nutcase. :D - James Mowery from twhirl

I think you can define smart a few different ways as well. I think the question you're really asking is "How to determine if someone is INTELLIGENT?" - David Andrzejewski

I have noticed that they seem less likely to urinate in their pants than the general population - Seth Shapiro

I wish I understood this. - Michael Markman

Takes a long time of knowing someone and seeing how they react under differents sets of circumstances. People are smart in some ways, but not in others. - Francine Hardaway from twhirl

When I hear the word "celebrity" I now think of Sarah Austin's Pop17 which come to think of it Robert, you have never acknowledged that I know of. Her site is about a new kind of celebrity. For her, and for me, the interesting celebrities are people who become famous because of their outstanding work. And she does not attempt to ask about shallow tips or favorite colors, but rather about their work. The people she tends to interview are micro-celebrities small in size, but important. - Andrew Baron

Smart people don't brag about how they can recognize smart people. - Rutger Blom

I enjoy people who talk about other change-makers in the world. People who point me towards amazing & influential musicians, dancers, physicists, politicians, chefs, etc... Sometimes the geek-world is a little heavy on ideas. I enjoy hearing about the life history & paths of unusual chemists, religious leaders, and environmentalists. Just as some of my friends have more "aesthetic sense" than others, some are unusually attuned to remarkable people, and some to innovative ideas. - Mitchell Tsai

smart people just know - Pokai

@ Scoble, once again you've hit a collective nerve with this thread. it goes back to what makes us human? "i'm not human without you"- Desmond Tutu re: Umuntu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... communities like friendfeed should be a place where we explore these types of questions, there is enough pablum out in this world already, thanks for pursuing this line of questioning. - michael sean wright

I have an idea in that I'd love to get Britney Spears on Twitter - I think that would do wonders for her career. ;) - Jesse Stay

Is smart a measurement of intelligence or emotional quotient? One's intelligence is measured and quantified, like it or not, whether intelligence is synonmous with smart, that maybe another question. One can have emotional quotient as well i.e. street smarts and it too is measurable. Intelligence is not dribble. Intelligence, for me, is the generation of ideas with vision followed by implementation. Intelligence has many forms as well albeit plasticity or crystallized. Good nature versus nurture question. - ka3drr

I'll answer with this: the people's intelligence that I most desire and respect are the ones who are able to bring reality to the "out of the box" ideas they have. Plenty of people can speculate, but very few have the competence to bring a good idea to the rest of us. - Tony

depressingly true... - Stephen Roberts

I still have no clue who these A-listers are that people talk about but I'm interested in ideas both from other people and also sharing ones I come across. Celebrities? Phooey, give me an original thinker any day. - Sally Church

Pop culture aficionados are not necessarily stupid. I think the smartest people can carry on a conversation about nearly anything, and like it or not popular culture is a great source of inspiration for many ideas. - Lindsey is Fierce!

Hmmm, how about... Methinks "smart people" think about having conversations with people (aka "intellectual celebrities") with whom they can talk about ideas and... Sigh... It still goes back to Howard Bloom: http://users.ucom.net/~vegan... —I'm a Zen Buddhist, but I still do think "God" is fair... As in, I can brainstorm pretty well, yes, but I'd die in the Aussie outback if you put me there. :P - asepsotic

Thats a great observation. If only we could make those ideas a reality :) You are a fun guy to talk about ideas with. - Christian Burns

Is this where we talk about Paris Hilton ? - Eric Berlin

Eric: my niece says Sean Faris is hot. I don't even know who that is. Off to the Google for me! :-) - Robert Scoble

I think I have a trump card. go look at The Inquisitr..there's some pretty intelligent posts on there and, also talk about celebrities. You can tell someone you are talking to is smart by the way they treat the subject at hand and, how they deliver their portion of the conversation. - Candace

Funny you should mention him, Robert. I'm working with a website, and he's one of our celebs on it. The odd part, for me, is that we have all of these B+ list celebs, and I don't know any of them. - Bradley McSpinn

I put it to you that smart people talk about people rather than ideas - Jim