Tbh I have also met plenty of people with 'good' degrees that were not the cleverest (one surprising example was a former colleague who had a Phd in Maths from an excellent ivy league university and was so inept that she eventually was let go as clients wouldn't let her work in their buildings - even for free!).

I have a group of friends who all also have either an M.A. or and M.S. We often joke that higher degrees do not make you intelligent, but actually sap your intelligence. We become experts in one field and the price is general knowledge about other things

Tbh I have also met plenty of people with 'good' degrees that were not the cleverest (one surprising example was a former colleague who had a Phd in Maths from an excellent ivy league university and was so inept that she eventually was let go as clients wouldn't let her work in their buildings - even for free!).

I have a group of friends who all also have either an M.A. or and M.S. We often joke that higher degrees do not make you intelligent, but actually sap your intelligence. We become experts in one field and the price is general knowledge about other things

Definitely - I think it is a common mistake many make that education guarantees intelligence. I will accept that there is a significant correlation but there are a lot of other factors at play too. I know plenty of stupid people with degrees and conversely the cleverest person i have ever met in my life doesn't have one (I work with a lot of people who have 1st class degrees from Oxford and Cambridge etc : i don't though) and he was orders of magnitude cleverer!

Personally i liken intelligence to horsepower in an engine. Some people have a 'lower horsepower engine' and optimise it's performance maximally; some have a 'high horsepower one' and don't use it's full power output - though may be applied in other ways.

Tbh I have also met plenty of people with 'good' degrees that were not the cleverest (one surprising example was a former colleague who had a Phd in Maths from an excellent ivy league university and was so inept that she eventually was let go as clients wouldn't let her work in their buildings - even for free!).

I have a group of friends who all also have either an M.A. or and M.S. We often joke that higher degrees do not make you intelligent, but actually sap your intelligence. We become experts in one field and the price is general knowledge about other things

In relation to this individual though that doesn't quite hold. I'm an actuary (As she is) so my job involves financial mathematics and statistics. She held undergrad, masters and Phd in maths so she should theoretically have been an expert in her own field and was very much not!

No worries, DarthPenguin. I didn't take any offence. All good. Just a good opening to share my own experience.