Wisdom Is Knowing A Tomato Is A Fruit But Not Putting It In A Smoothie

The electronics store where I work has one particular worker who seems like a bit of a contradiction. He’s EXCELLENT at solving problems that other workers are having, but he makes some VERY dumb decisions.

As an example, our video games section has empty cases on the shelf. You bring a case to the front counter, and they ring you out with an unopened case that has a game in it taken from a storage locker of sorts. [Worker] single-handedly keeps the locker sorted so that the most popular games are in the most convenient place for a worker to grab them. And yet, if he happens to be the one who sells a customer the last copy of a certain game that is in the locker, he’ll grab a giant stack of games from the back room, refill the locker, return the remaining games to the back room, and then resume checking out the customer.

One day, I overheard two of my coworkers talking about him.

Coworker #1: “I don’t get [Worker]. How can someone be so smart and so stupid at the same time?”

Coworker #2: “Well, you have to remember that ‘stupid’ can mean both ‘lack of intelligence’ and ‘lack of wisdom’.”

Coworker #1: “What’s the difference?”

Coworker #2: “Intelligence is being able to pop the hood of a car, look at the engine running, and tell what’s wrong with it. Wisdom is knowing better than to pop the hood of a car and look at the engine running while it’s in motion. [Worker] has the first one; he doesn’t have the second one.”

Ever since, whenever I run into a stupid customer, I keep this conversation in my mind.