User blog comment:Hyperborean/"The House of Hades" – official expectations blog/@comment-122.167.38.137-20130627134534/@comment-3146930-20130628192122

Annabeth explains the difference between mechanical smarts and actually smarts in The Demigod Files. When trying to fix the Bronze Dragon, she explains that children of Athena are better with ideas then the actual mechanics of it.

"I’m good with ideas. Not mechanics."

Basically she is saying that she could design buildings, weapons, or a bronze dragon, but it would still be up to the Hephaestus kids to build it, as I can't see Annabeth pounding away on an anvil all day.

I also don't think that Leo is dumb. He is very smart at what he does. Like all children of Hephaestus, he is good at operating and building machines. But Leo has been shown to instantly know how a machine works just by touching it, so I wouldn't say he is smart because he was able to use different kind of hardware; because that is just natural talent. He is smart in how he uses the equipment given to him. Like instead of just driving a bulldozer at the earthborn, he made a machine to control them instead. Strangely, he even says that he wasn't really sure what he had built until he needed to use it.

Now you could say that is cheating as children of Athena are naturally smart and children of Hephaestus are naturally good with machines. But like you said, it is how you apply what you know. Leo directs most of his smarts toward mechanics, but Annabeth directs her smarts at almost everything else; mythology, designing (architecture in general), mechanics (she is the only one on the Argo II that at least understands Leo's designs somewhat), battle strategy, and pretty much anything else she puts her mind to.

Reyna is also someone I hold in high respect. She is obviously intelligent, able to keep the camp going without Jason, but even she is overshadowed by Octavian (someone very intelligent in his own right) more often then not. I mean if Percy had never arrived at camp, then Octavian would be sitting in the other chair with Reyna not being able to do anything about it. However, we also don't know exactly what happened during those 8 months Jason was gone. I mean the toughest think Reyna might have had to deal with was Octavian...or the ever growing threat of the Gigantes' army. Even if she was able to hold the monsters back, she openly admits that they would have been overrun if not for the Amazons and Percy, Frank, and Hazel.

I'm not saying that Annabeth is so much smarter then everyone else, just saying that as far as overall knowledge goes, she is probably in the lead. Leo is really good with machines, but is limited in other areas. Reyna is an excellent leader, but if Zeus is any example, the leader isn't always the smartest. Hazel and some of the other members of the seven called Annabeth the leader because she did pretty much take charge most of the time; she just happens to also be the smartest. Reyna is better at leading an army (so is Percy or that matter), but Annabeth just seems to be better at leading a squad.