I would ask Mr. Asimov: Do you think that, given a reasonable amount of training, your "intelligence" could be applied toward automobile repair? Or do you truly believe that your mechanic friend had a different sort of "intelligence" that made him better at car repair, while your brand of "intelligence" lent itself toward academia?
I second this one. Mr. Asimov could easily become a mechanic if he were to apply himself. His mechanic, most probably, would never become an academician.
The Good Doctor has been dead for decades, unfortunately. If you want to learn more about him, you can read his (amazing) two-volume autobiography, In Memory Yet Green and In Joy Still Felt.
