Knowledge -vs- Intelligence

I was recently presented with an interesting complement. I was told I was smarter than another individual in my department. I had to stop and think about the statement for a while. I was puzzled as I find myself turning to them on a regular basis for help and advise. I soon found that I was not thinking about the comment in the context of myself and this individual but security professionals and their actions. We come at all different level of experience and a vast array of different back grounds. In my office we have gamers and programmers, college trained professionals and those that have just fallen into computers. I wanted to be a park ranger. Even went to school for it. But I worked my way through school in a computer store and found I was stuck in the field. I have taken classes and received certifications, but most of my training is in the field. No, I am not your technology wizard. I am no hack and no gamer. I spend my nights with my wife and kids. So what makes me, like all of the other successful security professionals, different. You see it in the classes we take. I am taking a forensics class and they, from day one, teach a process, a way of thinking, an Intelligence that as security professionals we need to apply to what we do. this is what sets us apart from the help desk tech or the network administrator. This is why the business administration turns to us when making difficult decisions. The Intelligence we apply to situations and that we use when making decisions, knot our technical knowledge, reflects the thoughtful process and analytics that we walk through with what we do. To be successful in security this needs to be reflected in everything we do; in our system design and our internal work to our investigations and our troubleshooting. This is the difference between knowledge and intelligence and this is what sets security apart. It is not about knowing something that the other guy does not. It is about using that knowledge smarter.