The term “Idiot-Savant” in the traditional sense is applied to people who possess an amazing talent in one area but are severely deficient in other areas of normal life.
The movie “Rain Man” was based on a real person named Kim Peek.
(1951-2009). Kim had congenital brain abnormalities including a missing nerve bundle that connected his two brain hemispheres. He had difficulties with simple everyday activities but had amazing memory skills. Another person on the list of idiot-savants is Daniel Tammet. He is autistic and suffers from Asperger syndrome but can recite the number pi to over 22,000 decimal numbers and is fluent in 11 languages. Those two examples are the extremes, but I have observed that many people are smart in some areas but are complete idiots in others. I excel at many things like telling puns, sudoku, crossword puzzles, and based on my career, I’m great at low-level repetitive tasks. But I was a total idiot when I decided to let my brother-in-law “Bob” try to repair my noisy HVAC unit. Bob may be a savant in other areas but I’m afraid his HVAC IQ score is in single digits. Fortunately, my next-door neighbor “Fred” helped me out. Fred has been married and divorced three times. He’s an idiot when it comes to relationships but a savant at being nosy and eavesdropping. He referred me to his HVAC technician “Tom” who may be lacking in some areas but the way he revived my HVAC system after what Bob did to it is the stuff of genius. My memory skills are inferior to those of Kim Peek, so now all I need is someone to remind me to call Tom when my HVAC unit needs cleaning and maintenance service.