Shrewd to me, has good & bad
connotations. The good being clever
& prudent in finding hidden possibilities,
or devising new strategies to get a
difficult or challenging task done.
The bad (negative) being use of cunning
or slyness to achieve one’s means or
desires, by using deceit or deviousness
in some way. Both require a high
measure of intelligence.
Sentence example: “I’d much rather
have shrewd friends in the good sense
rather than the bad because I would
tend to trust the former group more.”
Also, as a former psychology major,
I think Psychologists should
develop a “shrewdness scale” for
employers, & those seeking potential
mates to get an indication of whether
the individual being tested leans on the
positive or negative end of the scale, or
falls somewhere in between, possibly
indicating they’re not really that smart
or sharp or, ideally, that they may
exhibit traits of good business sense,
advanced mathematical abilities,
versatility of language use, & any
number of other capabilities.
But is a measure of “shrewdness,”
whether on the positive or negative
side, a good way to determine a person’s
character or trustworthiness? Or
perhaps it can be used as part of an
arsenal of other tests, including from
Psychology.