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Being wise and smart......

The other day I was watching a webcast featuring top New York Times journalists to discuss the ongoing Enron trial, which is in its last stages. While discusssing, one of the panellist said something like this, "The guys at Enron are extremelly smart guys but they are not wise". He then went on to say that had they been wise they would not have been caught for wrong doing in an environment which was less stringent (now you have Sarbanes-Oxley Act). What he was stressing is had these guys been wise they would not have ventured into such activities.

I think it is so much true in everything. In politics, we have extremelly smart guys who defend their change in stance or party policies before the nation- but these guys are certainly not wise. Also, in private lives, there are some occassions where one is tempted to act smart. It is quite rare to find wise people with us but rather easy to find 'smart' people. BTW, one of the definition of Wise is "having or prompted by wisdom or discernment"

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