A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly (Proverbs 12:23).

I was something of a precocious kid.  I especially liked to rattle off big vocabulary words and facts about the history of the Presidents of the United States of America.  I enjoyed knowing things and letting other people know that I knew things.  But in 6th grade, I was rudely awakened to the fact that others don't always enjoy the enjoyment that I might derive from knowing things.  One day during recess, I came upon two of my classmates who were inventing alliterative nicknames for everyone in our class:  "Awesome Aaron" and "Mean Mike" and stuff like that.  When I (foolishly) asked what my nickname was, they reluctantly shared that I had been dubbed "Egghead Eric."  I was crushed.  Even so, from that moment on I became increasingly aware of the fact that there is limited value to being a smart little know-it-all.

Most of us end up learning this at some point or another.  The only ones who don't learn a healthy degree of keeping knowledge to themselves are fools -- who think they're impressing people with their knowledge, while in fact they're only reinforcing their folly.

There's a song by Ben Folds which seems to be written for a fool such as this.  He sings, "Why you gotta act like you know, when you don't know?  It's OK if you don't know everything... The whiz man'll never fit you like the whiz kid did."  And I like that way of saying it.  Kids might be lauded for being a bit precocious, but losing that know-it-all streak is a part of growing up.  No one wants to have a "Whiz Man" around.  It seems to me that it's always better to play it on the humble side, being slow to speak unless specifically solicited for any potential knowledge or wisdom you might have.  At least that's what I've been learning through the years of trying to escape my "Egghead Eric" persona.