What is Wicked Smart

"She hits you with a joke yesterday that she tells tomorrow."

~Chris Salter

Now, that's a good question.

Wicked Smart people ask simple questions. The answers we give, the associations we make, is where the concept of wicked smartness arises. But what is wicked smartness, really? 

Is wicked smartness the ability to figure out complicated mathematical equations or the ability to retrieve large volumes of data off the top of one's head while simultaneously linking that data to new data in real time in a util way that is of value to more than one person in society? Or, is wicked smartness the ability to make associations between seemingly divergent concepts in a way that others exclaim,

Wow! I never thought of it that way.

Disclaimer: 

George Carlin, hence: George Carlin's brand of humor.

An upside down backward Bible

Is an upside down backward Chinese braille Bible = yesterday's joke told tomorrow? Or is all of this stuff just make-believe? Things we make up, tell ourselves - invent to entertain ourselves so that we might somehow feel as if we have some control over the mind blowing, brain warping experience of existence? 

If everything we know is just stuff we make up, how do we know which stuff is wicked smart and which stuff is just plain nonsense? (and what is nonsense?) Is there a hand test by which universal wicked smartness might trickle down into our brains? Where lies the common denominator? Or is everything equal simply because everything exists? and is therefore equally wicked smart and equally nonsensical at the same time? How can we accurately ascribe weight to equality by nature of existence (while simultaneously held in existence)? 

If there is a difference in the weight of two concepts, ideas, or objects, can they really be examined? Does every thought, concept, idea, object, being, manifestation, event and so forth have its own independent criteria (separate from the criteria we give it) by which it can be examined? Who is capable of rendering an impartial judgment or assessment? Would one have to be outside of existence to render an impartial judgment? And what does it mean to examine? Isn't this a little like thinking about infinitum from the space of finitude? Is the brain just thinking about itself while stuck within itself? Is that which we examine and categorize really just our attempt to escape the predicament of existence? 

What is the last refuge by which one might make the wicked smart vs not wicked smart determination? Historically wicked smart meant survival of the fittest. Now wicked smartness is associated with making connections others do not see, and then capitalizing on them and making the Forbes 400 list. 

Personally, I have no idea what wicked smartness means. Like my teenage children, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be in life. I spend my days considering projects intended to generate revenue for all involved. I spend my free time engaging with friends and family. I spend my private time thinking and writing and painting and filing new enterprises and registering intellectual property and riding Segways through parks and cities. And despite this, friends call me "wicked smart" - a compliment to which I respond with great erudition: Thank you. 

How can one respond to a compliment on which one has no direct authority to evaluate? Perhaps, by attempting to create a Wicked Smart Challenge that all can take to determine by mean average that which we collectively consider wicked smartness. 

Regardless of whether any of us have the capacity to do so, let us consider wicked smartness for ourselves. And if in doing so we make associations between the equality of differences and say, This one is wicked smart and this one is not, then we can equally claim to be wicked smart if by our measurement system we determine that we fall into the category of wicked smart; forever associating ourselves with wicked smartness until we do something dumb - which we will later define as something else. 

The Wicked Smart Challenge