The world needs more good people. The world doesn't need more smart people.

We need people who are both.

Why not?

It isn't like smart would mean more motivation or anything. I do think it would have benefits like not being as able to be ripped off or fooled by mostly simple math. I think it'd mean we'd have more knowledgeable nurses and fewer folks that believe medical woo.

I'd even argue that being good fails if you aren't smart. "Schools just need to get back to the 3 R's - readin', writing', and 'rithmatic" isn't all ill-intentioned, after all, and is (in part) a complaint that kids aren't ready for the world, but their solution shows ignorance to what the schools teach, why it is taught, and things like that.

I feel like your comment is implying a very specific type of "smart" person...

Perhaps a better way to put it is that smarts without wisdom and/or ethics can cause some serious damage?

More good people, more smart people, but much less people overall.

I imagine smart people have done more good for the world than good people. The big lasting improvements to our lives have almost exclusively come from technology and when you look back at technology the vast majority of it was created by smart people(a lot of whom were good too). Vaccines, antibiotics, and farming technology have probably saved more people than every charity that has ever existed combined.

Good != charity. Good people voluntarily enlisted in war to fight tyrants. Or sacrificed to give decent upbringing to their kids, often against extreme hardships, so that they don't become degenerates or criminals. Etc etc.

I don't know much good on average wars do. For every good person fighting a tyrant, there's a good person fighting for the tyrant.

Wars are bad (assuming they are usually started by "the bad guys" - an unreasonable aggressor). But, in order to stop the bad guys from taking over the world, the good guys need to sacrifice their lives.

Being 'good' in a non-smart way is not actually being very good at all.

That's bullshit, you can be good regardless of your place in life, regardless of what you do or don't have.

That is bullshit, and not at all what I'm trying to say.