Very good post. In fact, thinking in terms of smart / stupid is fairly pointless. Firstly, there are numerous forms of intelligence (as the first phrase of its wikipedia entry confirms). Secondly, sticking to the IQ kind of intelligence, most tasks require only a sufficient amount of it (say, more than 90 or so), more of it doesn't necessarily help. The guy with the highest IQ I ever met (180 or something) had a junior job (at 40yo) as a statistical analyst in a bank. This applies also to developers: for instance, getting things done is more important than being IQ-smart. Thirdly, and I think this is the poster's point, the form of intelligence I came to admire the most (and I find most useful) is the one that makes you humble enough to know what you don't know, and capable of listening to and appreciating people who think differently from you. Hard to really learn anything new without that one.