Intelligence vs Wisdom

October 24, 2020

Intelligence is the capability to handle information and derive conclusions based on the information that you analyzed and deliberated. The better are your analytical capabilities  to find patterns , and understand the patterns, the more intelligent you are; you can derive conclusions from the information faster and better then somebody else who's not as intelligent as you are.

Now what is wisdom?

Wisdom is based on experience. An intelligent person knows how to get out of the hole. A wise person knows how not to fall into the hole in the first place. Why? Because he has experience. And the best experience is when to learn from other people who fell into the hole.  You don't have to fall into the hole yourself to be wise. You learn from others, from the experience of others. So a wise person is extremely experienced without necessarily having to experience it on his own skin.

Young people are intelligent but not necessarily wise. We correlate wisdom with some white hair. Why white hair? Because there is experience and experience is not to tell people what to do, but what not to do. A wise person knows where the holes are, and prevents you from falling into them.In some companies, they make the mistake of hiring graduates from business schools who are the top in the class. Very intelligent, but they are not necessarily wise. Those companies  are bypassing older people because they claim that they are outdated; The advances in technology made them obsolete. My advise, hire intelligent people who know the latest technology but for leadership positions hire wise people. In todays environment there are endless opportunities what to do. One needs to know what not to do.

Just thinking,

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Written by
Dr. Ichak Adizes