It drives me to distraction when I hear that too. Steven Crowder was saying it recently. "Sam Harris is a very smart man, I'm not denying it, he's incredibly intelligent."
How so? Plenty of people can sound smart--can even write smart-sounding books--but can't take care of themselves, their ideas can't withstand argumentation, their analyses of the present are built of nothing but their desires reinforced by their echo chambers, and their predictions are crap, because they're too smart to entertain the possibility that they might be wrong.
"He's smart. He's smart. He's smart" is all I ever hear about this dumb guy.
It drives me to distraction when I hear that too. Steven Crowder was saying it recently. "Sam Harris is a very smart man, I'm not denying it, he's incredibly intelligent."
How so? Plenty of people can sound smart--can even write smart-sounding books--but can't take care of themselves, their ideas can't withstand argumentation, their analyses of the present are built of nothing but their desires reinforced by their echo chambers, and their predictions are crap, because they're too smart to entertain the possibility that they might be wrong.
"He's smart. He's smart. He's smart" is all I ever hear about this dumb guy.
He's intelligent in the sense of being able to memorize ideas and regurgitate them in a clear way. As far as discernment and wisdom, he's childish.
I think you hit the nail on the head.