I ran across this in my computer file. I wrote it about 5 years ago. Smart or Intelligent. Willem Blees RPT What is the difference between someone who is smart, and someone who is intelligent? Someone who is smart knows a lot of things. Someone who is intelligent has the ability to find the answers to problems, and to learn from experience. Someone who is smart is not necessarily intelligent, while someone who is intelligent, is not always smart. Someone who has intelligence, however, will someday become smart, but someone who is smart might not become intelligent. There are a lot of piano tuners who know an awful lot about pianos, and are very good at what they do. They are smart piano tuners. But they are not necessarily intelligent piano tuners. They do not have the ability to find answers to problems. When they run across a problem they have never seen before, they either try to make the repair incorrectly, or they leave the problem alone. And that is not because they aren't smart. It is because they don't know where to find the answer to the problem. On the other hand there are piano tuners who are not very smart, but they are intelligent, When they run across a problem they have never seen before, instead of doing it incorrectly, or not doing it all, they eventually will get the problem solved. Why? Because intelligent piano tuners have the ability of knowing where to find answers to their problems. I would consider myself as one of those intelligent piano tuners who is not very smart. I might have gotten a little smarter over the years, because I have used my intelligence to find the answer to the many problems I have encountered. But I know I don't know all the answers. And that is why I belong to the PTG and that is why I keep going to seminars and conventions. And apparently there are other piano tuners who are just as smart as I am, because I keep seeing them at the same conventions and seminars I go to. It seems they also know that they aren't smart enough yet, so they keep working at it. Unfortunately I have also run across my share of piano tuners who are "smart", but not intelligent. These tuners seem to think they don't "need" to belong to the PTG or attend seminars or to go to conventions. They haven't figured out that being intelligent is more important that being smart. Members of the PTG have a wealth of information available to them through the Journal, at chapter meetings, at seminars and on the internet. But it is at the PTG Convention where more information is shared than at any other gathering. This is where hundreds of other intelligent piano tuners talk and discuss and compare and solve problems. This is what makes going to the convention so important. If a problem was not discussed at a chapter meeting, or written about in the Journal, then perhaps it will be taught at a convention class. And if not, then all of the attendees at the convention will be available and at your disposal to find the answer. Become an intelligent piano technician. Kansas City is going to be a wonderful experience.
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