anecdotes is a part of them, I used empirical in the sense that i noticed (and somewhat envied) they had the ability to get out of situations while I could not. The reason I said nothing to do with IQ or intelligence is probably an underlying bias where I have seen some smarter folks (compared to me) do it as well as some not as smart folks do it too. Not using anecdotes because it has happened way too often, and this is also the experience of a few individuals in my friends group