I’m supposed to be clever. At least that’s what my academic results tell me, and what people occasionally mention.

My wife is smart. Street-wise. She has lots of ‘cop on’, as the Irish would say. I think it’s better to be smart. Being clever, or having intelligence, is an absolute thing, measurable on a scale. You can’t do that much with it on its own.

Being smart is applying intelligence, putting a degree of cleverness to use. Being smart is seeing the importance of a pattern, not simply the pattern itself. Being smart is the ability to see through a problem and find a solution quickly.

I should have figured this out sooner, but I’m not that smart…