Why Isaac Asimov wasn’t all that ‘smart’

by Jay Garmon in After Hours

on February 7, 2007, 12:15 AM PST

Why Isaac Asimov wasn’t all that ‘smart’

Found via reddit: Isaac Asimov’s Essay “What is Intelligence, Anyway?” The absolute money quote comes from Asimov recounting the words of his auto mechanic: “Because you’re so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.” Asimov’s response? “I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.”

Found via reddit: Isaac Asimov’s Essay “What is Intelligence, Anyway?” The absolute money quote comes from Asimov recounting the words of his auto mechanic:

“Because you’re so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.”

Asimov’s response? “I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.”

By Jay Garmon

The Trivia Geek, known to some by the mysterious alias "Jay Garmon," is an online community entrepreneur trying his luck with some promising Internet startups. To get the real skinny on his wacky business ideas--and his amateurish sci-fi short stories--read his blog, JayGarmon.net. It's like Jay without editorial oversight or decent engineering support. \ \ Jay is also the diabolical mind behind TechRepublic's Geek Trivia newsletter, a former contributing editor of TR's Geekend blog, and until March of 2008 was a project manager for TR site feature development. \ \ In a previous life (read: fresh out of college), he was an ad man, toiling away for low pay and less respect as a copywriter and producer of print ads, radio spots, and TV commercials. No, you've probably never seen his work. Be thankful. \ \ Between his ad days and his life as a TechRepublicist, he worked briefly as a Web developer, mostly using (shudder) FrontPage and SQL Server to build rickety and poorly conceived database-driven Web sites. He was self-taught, and it showed. He's also dabbled in proposal writing, though he wouldn't recommend that as a career choice. \ \ Today, when he's not trying to build the next Internet media giant, Jay reads some comic books, plays tabletop RPGs, helps run a local sci-fi con, tries to launch a career as a fiction author, watches a lot of sports, and keeps his wife and daughter happy. The last part is easiest.

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Why Isaac Asimov wasn’t all that ‘smart’

Why Isaac Asimov wasn’t all that ‘smart’

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TechRepublic Premium editorial calendar: IT policies, checklists, toolkits and research for download

The Best Human Resources Payroll Software of 2023

Windows 11 update brings Bing Chat into the taskbar

Tech jobs: No rush back to the office for software developers as salaries reach $180,000

The 10 best agile project management software for 2023

1Password is looking to a password-free future. Here’s why

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