how important are "street smarts"?

[Pogo]

I remember when I was growing up, and there were some corporations like JCPenny and Sears which would make prospective employees take tests loaded with tricky questions designed to expose those prospective employees' knowledge of things those corporations considered to have been in some way fundamentally subversive and/ or not consistent with what those employers saw as positive employee traits — in short, "street smarts."

I've little to no doubt most of us are familiar with these sorts of test questions, which typically went something like:

• True or false: Billy just sold drugs to an undercover cop, and didn't go to jail. Billy is most likely a snitch.
• Sharon does not have a job or a significant other, but she leaves the house every night at 10 p.m., more often than not doesn't return until 7 a.m., and never seems to have any problems paying her bills. She is likely a prostitute.
• Tom has been unemployed for years, yet he somehow manages to drive two BMWs and feed his housewife and three children in a suburban three-story home. He can often be seen hanging out downtown with gentlemen dressed in three-piece suits. Tom is probably in the Mob.

Why all the negative hysteria with regard to "street smarts" from some employers in bygone years?

Isn't it good to know some things about the way truth, justice and the so-called "American way" really work — particularly in a down economy?

Are "street smarts" important to you with regard to your children?

Might they save your daughter from being raped, or your son from joining a gang?

I've never seen an employment process present questions like that but I don't know how you get "street smarts" out of 'em. If anything they look like basic logic questions -- which still doesn't explain what role they could possibly have in employment.

But to the last part of the OP as to what real street smarts are good for -- yes absolutely. Far better than walking around packing.

 

[Asclepias]

Can you give an example?

(Please understand, I'm not saying I doubt you. I just can't think of one myself and could use the help.)

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On the streets you have to learn to read people. I was working at a company that was secretly planning to outsource my departments duties to IBM. I was asked to show some guys from IBM our procedures as a "information sharing" assignment. Something about how they asked me set off alarms. I answered some head hunters trying to recruit me and lined up a new job. The day I was going to put in a 2 week notice they announced IBM was going to be taking over and we all had to interview for our positions. Turned out to be the best move I ever made in my working career. 6 months later all the people that actually made it through the interview process were fired and the jobs moved to Brazil.

I can see where you are coming from there, but that's another one I don't know if I could call street smarts. Maybe you learned to read people on the street, but the ability or need to read people is not a street specific thing. Maybe being on the streets makes it more important to develop a skill like that for your own safety, but that isn't the only way or reason to learn it.

If you are going to call something "street smarts" it feels like it should be more closely tied to street scenarios and behaviors. Otherwise what is really "street" about it?

Actions, knowledge, or behaviors that wouldn't just be common sense or something that you can commonly learn elsewhere. Those are the kinds of things that I could get behind calling "street smarts"

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I think the reason its called street smarts is to put it in a separate category from what is considered "acceptable" smarts. Its no different than OJT. I may have learned those skills in the streets but you are correct one can learn them anywhere. I think the lesson sticks better when under duress simply because you are using those skills to survive. That is how we as humans evolved. One of the smartest, if not the smartest people I have ever met in my life was a drug dealer. To put that into context, I have also met and talked with multiple millionaires and 2 billionaires. Its all about environment and where you operate. I'd put my money on a person from the streets surviving and succeeding in any arena before putting it on someone that doesnt have street smarts.