Like a good friend always says in reply to “you cant teach an old dog new tricks”, “what if one of the tricks he already learned was how to learn new tricks?”
They are NOT mutually exclusive. I have met very few people that count as one or the other that cannot competently compete in the opposite. Being smart doesnt refer to what you already know, it refers to your ability to learn. If your smart to begin with, it doesnt matter what the topic is, or how its approached.
“I was born a genius, but I learned to be street smart” Immortal Technique