“He had no large knowledge of any subject, though he has looked into many just long enough to replace absolute unconsciousness of them with measurable ignorance. Never having enjoyed the sense of achievement, he was troubled with unsatisfied aspirations that filled him with melancholy and convinced him that he was a born artist”.
George Bernard Shaw from ‘An Unsocial Socialist’
I think he was a born maven:
“In network theory and sociology, a maven is someone who has a disproportionate influence on other members of the network. The role of mavens in propagating knowledge and preferences has been established in various domains, from politics to social trends.”
This is a new word to me. The definitions in the Urban Dictionary means that it could be taken as compliment or a put down. :
“In Hebrew, ‘mavin’ means “he knows”. So a “maven” is someone in the know, a real expert, or maybe sometimes just a self-styled expert”
According to The Simpsons (usually a more reliable source of wisdom) a ‘maven’ is “a dork among dorks – an urber dork”.
In other words, I guess you’re saying GBS was a self reighteous smart arse which I doubt he would have argued with.
I could say he was the Clive James of his time. But that would be too, too cruel.