For many of us, college is that season of life when we are compelled to choose a career path, long before we have any idea of who we are or what we want.  Back in my college days, many of my fellow students were the progeny of doctors, lawyers and engineers who saw no other viable option than to follow in the footsteps of their parents.  Others who had a propensity to argue chose to pursue the law, while those geeky types who were always taking things apart as kids went into engineering.  And those rare students with a 5.0 GPA (how is that even possible?) and whose faces were always buried in a book?  They were destined for Med School.

Regardless of our initial choices, or of how many times we may have changed course along the way, most of us realized at some point that the scale with which Academia measures “smart” is broken, and that success in any of life’s endeavors is built on the ability to think outside the book.  Nevertheless, we persist in the belief that some professions are just inherently smarter than others.

Take brain surgeons for example.  Considered by many to be the pinnacle of the medical profession, brain surgeons are often held up as the smartest of the smart.  Believed to be the very first medical specialty, neurosurgery dates back to ancient times.  Originally called “trepanation” , it involved any intentional cutting open of the skull by a recognized practitioner.  History provides few clues as to how smart these early practitioners may have been.  The first modern brain surgery in the U.S. is credited to Drs. Hirschfelder and Morse, who removed a patient’s brain tumor in 1886.   <continue reading>