When a girl asked two gentlemen about her outfit today, one says, ”It looks strange on you” and the other one says, “Oh it looks good, but maybe something brighter will fit you better.” Who do you think the girl would like to further develop a relationship with? Of course the second one because that gentleman has social savvy.

Social savvy is a collection of skills that needs to be studied in order to communicate well with others. In Chapter 4, The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 2, of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, which was published in 2008, he gave plenty of convincible examples and discussed a lot about the impacts of having social savvy.

Is having social savvy really important in our lives? The answer to the question is definitely a big YES. Having social savvy can defend us, which includes getting ourselves out of trouble, lead to academic successes, and be able to challenge the authorities.

Having social savvy can help us solve really difficult problems and get ourselves out of trouble. For example, Oppenheimer tried to poison his professor, luckily his professor found that out and put him on trial. However, according to Gladwell in The Trouble with Geniuses, he quoted American Prometheus, which he explains is “a biography of Oppenheimer that was written by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.” “After protracted negotiations, it was agreed that Robert would be put on probation and have regular sessions with a prominent Harley Street psychiatrist in London.”

It was originally impossible for a normal person to get rid of the charge, not to mention to continue studying in Cambridge University when tried to poison his or her professor; Oppenheimer used his abilities to speak up for himself and convinced the others what he wanted them to believe, which was that he had a mental problem and needed to see the psychiatrist. He earned himself the chance to keep studying in the university and was only put on probation.

Compared with Oppenheimer, a genius that had an even higher IQ than Einstein was Chris Langan. However, he seemed like a total idiot whenever he needed to to communicate. He lost his scholarship in Reed just because his mother forgot to sign for him. He could have negotiated with the teachers about his scholarship, but he didn’t know how to do that.

Furthermore, he wished to change his class schedule, but he failed to do so. Then he dropped out of school. How could that little scheduling problem lead to dropping out of school? Apparently that is all because Langan failed to communicate. Hence, he got himself into a lot of unavoidable trouble. He could’ve lived much easier with that incredible IQ higher than Einstein, but he lived his whole life like hard labor. Therefore, social savvy is an important skill to be learned in order to avoid getting into unnecessary troubles that can be solved, and let us live much easier and happier.

Social savvy also leads to academic success, which we may not all be qualified for. Gladwell gives an example of Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer wanted to be the director of the Manhattan Project, but nothing of him could show that he was ready to be qualified. Gladwell states that:

"He [Oppenheimer] was just thirty-eight and a junior to many of the people whom he would have to manage. He was a theorist, and this was a job that called for experimenters and engineers. His political affiliations were dodgy; he had all kinds of friends who were Communists. Perhaps more striking, he had never had any administrative experiences."

Oppenheimer was young, inexperienced, had problematic friends, and even had a record for trying to poison his tutor. Although it turned to be that he didn’t meet any requirements to get a position in the “Manhattan Project,” Leslie Groves, who directs the project, accepted him and called Oppenheimer a genius later on.

He had gifted talents just like Chris Langan did. They were both called geniuses by others who had a high IQ, and they aced their schoolwork much earlier than they should have.

Nevertheless, there is a significant discrepancy between them--Oppenheimer knew how to communicate while Langan didn’t even have a clue. If Langan--the high IQ genius--had been in this situation, there is no wonder that Langan would definitely be charged for attempted murder and the director of Manhattan Project would never know whom Chris Langan was. Fortunately, Oppenheimer knew how to talk, so he got what he wanted in the end and therefore obtained an incredible academic success for himself. We can clearly tell that sometimes having the ability to do the academic work is not enough; there may be many objective factors, which will block our way. In this case, social savvy is a powerful tool that enables us to have a better chance to achieve academic success.

Being able to challenging authority inoffensively is also a benefit that comes with having social savvy. It means that we are not afraid to tell our own opinions and negotiate with the authority in order to do what is the best for ourselves without making other people feel embarrassed or awkward.

Gladwell gives another example in The Trouble with Geniuses, saying that Alex who is a child from the middle-class family is encouraged by his mother to say what he wants to say to the doctor when visiting the doctor’s office. Alex first interrupted the doctor because he thinks the doctor tells his age wrongly. Then he insisted the doctor to check for his bumps before the physical. Alex, the kid, successfully expresses what he think is right and gets the doctor to check for him. Alex, who clearly has an upper hand in this conversation rather than the doctor, the adult, owns the balance of power. However, the whole conversation doesn’t make the readers feel uncomfortable, which we may think that Alex has an impolite and rude manner towards the doctor, because Alex knows how to communicate in a proper way. To disagree with the authorities and to express what we think is right is essential, but what’s more important is to attain that without hurting anybody’s feelings. At this point, using the skill of social savvy can help us easily achieve that.

Unlike IQ, social savvy is not something that we inherit from our parents. However, when IQ reaches a certain threshold, social savvy turns out to be the crucial factor.

In conclusion, social savvy is a good tool to arm ourselves in order to have a greater chance to achieve success and get what we want in the end. We should all put really good efforts in learning social savvy because communicating with other people happens everyday in our lives. Good social savvy skills don’t only satisfy us, but also make other people around us comfortable and happy.