Aptitude is defined as a high level of intellect or quickness to learn. We use adjectives for describing a person’s aptitude. An aptitude is an element of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. An aptitude may be physical or mental. Aptitude is inborn potential to do certain kinds of work; it is sometimes developed or undeveloped. We choose positive and negative adjectives as per our experience and our observations about those people. Some of the positive adjectives are:
Book smart is an adjective to describe a person as generally intelligent, well educated and do well academically. However, the fundamental idea is that the person deals with situations especially bad or difficult situations from an intellectual direction, using or basing decisions on facts, knowledge or insights gained mainly from books or structured experiences.
If you are a Book smart, it means you’re studious and good at school. You pass tests with good grades. You can spout off facts, handle math and science, and make references to art and literature. People who are good at trivia are considered smart.
A Street smart on the other hand is a person who uses common sense; he/she deals with the world as per demand by using wittiness, shrewdness, at times kindness as per requirement of the hour; this person knows the ways of the world. The underlying idea is such a person deals with matters at hand in a more practical way with pragmatic applications. In short, a street smart uses intelligence not from books but from reality of life and personal experience.
If you are Street smart, it means you are aware of your surroundings and you know how to prepare for and respond to various types of adversities. You won’t invite trouble and you’ll know how to handle it if it does come your way. “Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit,” said the world’s greatest and greatest English writer of all time, William Shakespeare.
An Intelligent person is one who has a wealth of information, one who has honed critical thinking skills, and has a brain that’s strong at making connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information, he/she also creative. Intelligence is very useful on a daily basis. It makes you powerful. People cannot buy intelligence. Intelligent people can quickly assess what’s being presented to them, they can determine whether it stacks up factually and logically, and expose any holes. They are good at pinpointing flaws as well as strengths in an idea and explore areas before arriving at a conclusion. Wit and intelligence go together, so intelligent people can be refreshing and a lot of fun.
A Smart person has the ability to quickly adapt to a situation and make the best of it. This is the origin of the “street smart” expression. It can be applied to people who can read a situation and act accordingly, especially on the streets of a bad locality, where social rules and civil laws sometimes do not apply. Smartness is being practical, applicable, and generally desirable for day-to-day life.
A Brilliant person is great in a specific field. We say Dev Anand was a brilliant actor, Mohamed Rafi was a brilliant singer, S.D. Burman was brilliant music director, Mehamood was a brilliant comedian. Brilliance specifies highest praise for a specific craft. People can have relative brilliance in a specific area/discipline, which means a brilliant person engages in his best capacity in a chosen craft; he/she can completely immerse in it, without getting bothered about time and energy spent on creating a masterpiece. What a brilliant person creates is larger than life. For example, the Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.” It holds the Guinness World Record. Leonardo da Vinci was a brilliant painter. Brilliance is always boundary less.
A Sensitive person is someone whose inner experiences line up with his/her outer experiences. Often we see a disconnection between inner and outer feelings in people. People believe their inner world — thoughts and emotions are separate from their outer world — other people. They believe only in their physical world in which they live. Sensitive people most definitely bound together, and they influence each other every moment. Some people think sensitivity is an impediment to success. Sensitive people experience discomfort and pain, and therefore, many brush away the feelings of sympathy and understanding. People turn away from it. The fact is that life is comprised of dualities. We can’t have only pleasure without the opposite — pain. They are bound up in each other. To experience happiness, we must know its opposite -sadness. And we are most healthy when we can sit with both.
A person of Wisdom is sensitive at heart. Sensitivity is crucial to wisdom. And, it helps to have quite a few years of experience as a human under your belt. A man of wisdom is objective in nature. The person understands that all that he/she thinks need not be correct. Wise people have space around their thoughts and emotions. They can keep an eye on them, and choose which ones to engage with and the ones to let flow through them and pass on by. They see life as a river. They know which currents and tides they’ve seen before, and their typical patterns. They can advise people accordingly. Sensitivity and wisdom lead to brilliance.
The purpose for your life is to experience the completeness of who you really are.