Street smart or book smart?
For as long as I can remember, people have argued about which one matters more in business.
One person has the degree, knows the terminology, understands the formulas and can explain how everything is supposed to work.
The other person learned by doing it.
They've sold the job.
Climbed the ladder.
Hired the employee.
Lost the employee.
Underbid the project.
Fixed the callback.
Run out of material.
Dealt with an angry customer.
Made payroll.
Missed payroll.
Had a great season.
Had a terrible season.
And somehow came back the next year smarter than they were before.
For contractors, I have traditionally put a tremendous amount of value on that second kind of education.
But now artificial intelligence has entered the conversation.
And I think it changes the value of knowledge itself.
AI Just Made Information Cheap
Think about how much of our education has historically revolved around acquiring information.
You had to know the formula.
Know the terminology.
Know where to research something.
Know how to write something.
Know how to calculate something.
Know how to build the spreadsheet.
Know how to create a marketing plan.
Know how to structure an employee handbook.
Know how to write an advertisement.
Know how to troubleshoot a problem.
A lot of that information once took years to accumulate.
Today?
You can pull out your phone and ask AI.
In seconds you can have explanations, calculations, research, sales scripts, training material, marketing ideas, job descriptions, processes and business analysis sitting in front of you.
That's a massive change.
It doesn't mean knowledge is worthless.
It means access to information is no longer the competitive advantage it once was.
So What Becomes More Valuable?
If everybody can get an answer, the advantage moves somewhere else.
I believe it moves toward:
Judgment.
Experience.
Leadership.
Problem solving.
Communication.
Relationships.
Creativity.
Decision making.
And above everything else:
Execution.
AI might give 100 Christmas light contractors access to essentially the same information.
Those 100 contractors are still going to produce 100 very different businesses.
That's the part I find fascinating.
AI Can Tell You How to Price a Job. Can It See the Job?
Imagine two contractors.
One has read everything available about pricing Christmas light installation.
The other has personally estimated 1,000 properties.
The experienced contractor walks onto a property and sees things the inexperienced contractor doesn't see yet.
That roofline is going to take longer than it looks.
That tree will eat lights.
We need another ladder.
There's nowhere good to hide that extension cord.
We're going to need a lift.
That customer doesn't actually have a price objection.
The crew you're planning to send can't finish this in one day.
We're going to regret scheduling that installation for November 28.
Those aren't trivia questions.
They're judgment calls.
And judgment is usually built through repetitions.
Information Isn't the Same Thing as Wisdom
AI can give you information.
AI can help analyze information.
AI can even make recommendations based on information.
But somebody still has to decide:
Do we hire another crew?
Do we raise our prices?
Do we take this commercial project?
Do we walk away?
Do we buy another $50,000 in inventory?
Do we expand into another market?
Do we replace this employee?
Do we invest in this equipment?
Do we change suppliers?
Do we say yes?
Do we say no?
Business happens in those gray areas.
That's where experience matters.
What Knowledge Is Becoming Less Valuable?
Here's where I think this conversation gets uncomfortable.
There are things people have historically spent tremendous amounts of time memorizing that may simply not have the same value anymore.
Memorizing information that can be retrieved instantly
Knowing information is still useful.
But being the human storage device for information isn't nearly the competitive advantage it used to be.
Basic formulas and calculations
You need to understand what the numbers mean.
You don't necessarily need to spend your life doing calculations manually.
Generic business information
“How do I write a job description?”
“What should an employee handbook include?”
“How do I create a marketing calendar?”
“What questions should I ask during an interview?”
“How do I build a customer follow-up process?”
There was a time when answering questions like these required books, consultants, courses or hours of research.
Now we can often create a reasonable starting point in seconds.
Basic content creation
Emails.
Blog outlines.
Social posts.
Training documents.
Meeting agendas.
Scripts.
Checklists.
AI has dramatically lowered the technical barrier to producing all of them.
That doesn't mean they're automatically good.
It means creating the first draft is no longer the hard part.
What Becomes MORE Valuable?
This is what contractors should be thinking about.
Pattern Recognition
One season teaches you something.
Ten seasons teach you patterns.
You start recognizing problems before they become problems.
That is extremely valuable.
Leadership
AI can write a speech about leadership.
It can't stand in your warehouse at 6:30 in the morning during peak season and get 20 exhausted people moving in the same direction.
Relationships
People still do business with people they trust.
Customers remember how you treated them.
Employees remember whether you kept your word.
Vendors remember who pays their bills.
Communities remember who showed up.
Technology may actually increase the value of authentic human relationships.
Creativity
AI can produce 100 ideas.
Someone still has to recognize the one worth pursuing.
Execution
This may become the biggest separator of all.
Millions of people are going to have access to incredible intelligence.
Far fewer people will consistently turn that intelligence into completed work.
But Street Smart Isn't an Excuse to Stay Ignorant
There's another side to this.
“I've been doing this for 20 years” doesn't automatically mean you've been doing it correctly for 20 years.
Experience can reinforce bad habits just as easily as good ones.
Street smarts without continued education can eventually become stubbornness.
That's why I don't think the future is really:
Street Smart VS. Book Smart.
I think something much bigger is happening.
Street Smart + AI Might Be the Real Superpower
Think about an experienced Christmas light contractor.
Maybe they've been doing this for 10, 15 or 20 seasons.
They understand customers.
They understand crews.
They understand weather.
They understand materials.
They understand scheduling.
They understand the madness that happens between October and December.
Now give that person access to AI capable of helping with:
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business analysis
-
financial modeling
-
marketing
-
sales
-
hiring
-
training
-
SOP development
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customer communication
-
software
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data analysis
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research
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inventory planning
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scheduling
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leadership development
That is different.
We aren't replacing experience with artificial intelligence.
We're giving experienced operators leverage they've never had before.
That's where I think the real opportunity lies.
Book Smart Isn't Dead Either
Deep knowledge still matters.
Someone who truly understands accounting is going to use an AI accounting assistant better than somebody who doesn't understand a balance sheet.
Someone who understands marketing can judge an AI marketing strategy more effectively.
Someone who understands electrical systems can recognize dangerous advice.
Someone who understands software can push AI development tools further.
Expertise isn't disappearing.
AI amplifies expertise.
Which means maybe we've been asking the wrong question.
Instead of:
Street Smart or Book Smart?
Maybe the question should become:
What Happens When a Street-Smart Operator Suddenly Has Access to the World's Knowledge?
I think we're about to find out.
And it could create one of the greatest opportunities small business owners have ever had.
The New Competitive Advantage Is Knowing What to Do Next
Knowledge tells you what could work.
Experience tells you what has worked.
Data tells you what is happening.
AI can help you understand all three.
But wisdom helps determine what you should actually do next.
That's still your responsibility.
For contractors, I wouldn't spend the next decade trying to compete with artificial intelligence at remembering information.
Learn to use it.
Put it inside your company.
Ask better questions.
Challenge its answers.
Use it to accelerate your learning.
But keep building the abilities technology has a much harder time replacing.
Learn to sell.
Learn to lead.
Learn to communicate.
Learn to solve problems.
Learn to build relationships.
Learn to make decisions.
Learn to develop people.
Learn from every season.
And most importantly:
Learn how to execute.
Because having the answer and building the business are two completely different things.
Question of the Day
Which matters more in business today: STREET SMARTS or BOOK SMARTS?
But I want to take it one step further.
With AI putting more information at our fingertips than any generation in history, what information do you believe is no longer worth spending years trying to memorize?
And what skills do you believe just became more valuable because of AI?
Drop your answer in the conversation.
I have a feeling contractors are going to be divided on this one.
— Ron Robey
ChristmasContractor.com
Christmas Light Installers Mastermind
