The RAE dictionary defines intelligence as "the ability to understand" and a smart person as "someone who is shrewd, sharp". It could be said that an intelligent person likes to ask questions and a clever person likes to give answers. There are different types of intelligence and shrewdness but fortunately we all have some of both; in what proportion, depends on each one, but there is agreement in recognizing that shrewdness is more profitable than intelligence. My grandmother summed it up with the forcefulness of the old plan Spanish : "The smart ones live at the expense of the smart ones". In concentration camp movies, the figure of the "procurer" is classic (William Holden in "Traitor in Hell", or James Gardner in "The Great Escape"). The "getter" gets hold of the most varied gadgets and lives like a rajah based on sympathy, contacts and cans of condensed milk. On the other hand, the brains behind the escape, who have to get up early in the morning to think and plan, have a hard time.

Even though less profitable, intelligence is more dressed than shrewdness. The former is the sister (or brother) who married an aristocrat, while the latter is the one who married a shrewd merchant: both go to the same casino but the latter tends to be more noticeable than the former. The smart ones want their intelligence to be recognized, but the smart one may even pretend to be a fool if the going gets tough or simply to be left alone. The emperor Claudius, according to the BBC, when he saw what dynasty and table mates he had been given, decided to play the fool for a while to save himself from the family custom of moving the bench of power.

At the other extreme are the smart pedants, who inflate their egos with invented titles, like that director of the Guardia Civil who fabricated an engineer's past. There are also those in companies, usually commenting in English on the latest book cover they have read or pinning on other people's medals. Sooner or later they are discovered or, as another grandmother says (this time from a colleague), "you end up seeing their brass". The clever one can also simulate his own light by surrounding himself with planetary collaborators (i.e., who do not emit light) and who cannot cast a shadow on him because they do not have profile. The gangster in "Death among the flowers" (1990) surrounded himself with loyal but clueless gunmen until he hired a clever second and, of course, he was caught untrained.

My admiration goes to a third subject of smart. He is the one who does not need to pretend intelligence because the rest of us think he has it because we need to believe it. Sean Connery and Michael Caine are two adventurers, two smart guys, who are taken for gods by the inhabitants of Kafiristan in "The Man Who Could Reign" (1975). Their charade is endured because they need to believe that they are the successors of Alexander the Great. In a business accustomed to cardboard leaders, someone who keeps his composure can become, when his turn comes, the ultimate symbol of intelligence simply because he has been there, and this status can be perpetuated unless the clever one is too clever and ends up seeing his brass.