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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#451

Post by jongjong »

zdragnar wrote: post #84
Ardon wrote: post #53

Might be useful to ask a different question: What makes people happy? It's things like relationships, satisfying work, accomplishment. (and many, many more) Then the real question emerges: How many of those happiness 'sources' are made better by intelligence? What percentage? Relationships? Seems like no. Work? Also seems like no, lots of work doesn't make use of a high IQ that people enjoy nonetheless. Accomplishmen…

As I heard someone say, happiness is your reality minus your expectations. Smart people see more variables that could be changed, more components that could be modified, and are less likely to accept things as they are. This creates a false sense of ease by which reality could be modified, and thus higher expectations for the world around them. I suspect this misplaces happiness and contentment, but the two are also…

Yes, and also, being able to perceive the world in high resolution when everyone else is blind has its own challenges.

Less intelligent people may be asking you to step in front of a bus because they don't see the bus and you cannot convince them that the bus exists because they're looking in the same direction as you and they don't see anything there. They don't trust your judgement, especially when others who also have equally poor vision agree with them and side against you.

The majority of people have poor vision and so they see the same vague blurry shapes as each other. Because of this, they will often agree with one another and side against intelligent people; who are a minority.

Moreover, it's easier to form consensus over blurry/vague concepts. This is the principle behind fortune-telling. Intelligent people will tend to disagree about details. Because they can see much more detail, there are more contentious points to argue about. It's harder for intelligent people to form consensus.

Being intelligent is a source of unhappiness because it is isolating to not be able to discuss what you see with others. It's like living alone in a parallel universe. You can see lower dimensions but you can't communicate to anyone else about the extra dimensions that exist in your reality because they are incapable of comprehending them. Plato's Allegory of the Cave comes to mind.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#453

Post by darkwater »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #301
anyfoo wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but I don't think that makes sense, and that it's pretty obvious that it doesn't. I don't have experience with cocaine, but as a Bavarian I made plenty of experience with alcohol. I've never been addicted, but I had my fair share of Oktoberfest and beer garden visits. And yet you don't see my optimizing my life around it. In fact, nowadays I have a beer every few months if even , simply because most of my…

In my experience that is the case. I haven't gone to the gym for a few weeks now, because after years of doing it, I no longer feel anything. I go to Walmart every day and buy Apple juice and Kit Kat, and that does very little, incomparable to taking pleasure-optimized drugs.

You just get used to chemicals as well and need more and more, and stronger ones. Alcoholics are not happy when drinking, they are miserable if they are not drinking. That's a completely different world.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#454

Post by alexalx666 »

Slow_Hand wrote: post #11
mfer wrote: post #7

Two thoughts.... First, being intelligent (as defined in the article) doesn't relate to being happy. There is nothing inherent about being intelligent that means happy. Second, our society spends a lot of time shaping culture and people to extract value from them. For example, the focus on "more" rather than "enough". We are shaped to always desire more and never be content with what we have. Even intelligent people…

Everyone wants to be happy, but nobody wants to be happy with what they have.

So maybe the right question to ask is - how to be content under capitalist regime if you are smart.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#456

Post by rf15 »

jesterson wrote: post #394
rf15 wrote: post #392

That sounds strange, but please drill some holes into my argument. I would expect that unhappiness stems from the negative mismatch of one's expectation vs experienced reality. This, to me, implies that they had an unnaturally (and unjustifiably) high expectation of what reality has to offer. Additionally, it implies lack of understanding of WHY things are "bad" in the way they are. You might argue, oh, they are smar…

> unhappiness stems from the negative mismatch of one's expectation vs experienced reality A juvenile unhappiness perhaps so. I would suggest adult one may stem from deep understanding how this world is built, altogether with futile attempts to change it. Its taking all things as they are, and yet being sad exactly for the way they are.

But that still means you are unable to emotionally accept this understanding, that the world is as it is for perfectly logical reasons if you go down deep enough.

And no attempt is futile, every act should matter to you.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#457

Post by duskdozer »

machomaster wrote: post #339
RealityVoid wrote: post #164

I only read the intro, and I don't think I can bare the rest of it. First, I think the premises is false. I think smarter people are happyer. Second, many people when they engage with pieces like this, expect that smarter people are unhappyer, which, yes, the article doesn't say this, but I feel it at least suggests it. And last but not least, their study that says smart people are not happier doesn't really say that…

Smarter people get part of the unhappiness from being surrounded by stupidity. And that article is a great example of that. It is full of stupidity (brow-raising premise, invalid arguments, incorrect rephrasing, wrong conclusions, lack of basic understanding, weird theories, unnecessary DEI commentary, inability to ask relevant questions) and it is a mess. I was mad reading it. It made me sad to see such a stupid art…

Curious what diversity/equity/inclusion commentary you took issue with?

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#458

Post by lordnacho »

codyklimdev wrote: post #15

I think beyond a certain level surplus IQ begins to cause problems. While still useful, the amount of self-sabotage and thought spirals the brain can generate with the extra power can cause neuroses and unhappiness on a larger scale than those less intelligent are capable of. Combine it with higher societal expectations and it's no great mystery to me why smarter people seem unhappier. Just my thoughts anyways. I'm a…

I don't think it's so much the IQ that causes self-sabotage. The thing that happens is that if you have a big brain, you tend to try to use it to solve every problem. Guy who has a hammer sees a nail everywhere. After all, IQ is seen as a kind of tool for everything, so why not?

So you get these smart people who think they can rationally work themselves out of emotional issues.

Well, if you lift with your back, you hurt your back.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#459

Post by thunderbong »

Neither the article, nor any of the comments here, define happiness.

So I'm not quite sure what we're trying to measure here.

If it is subjective then comparing it with something which is considered measurable, like intelligence (however vaguely) is unrelated and irrelevant.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#460

Post by PaulRobinson »

My Dad once told me being smart was a curse.

When he was stationed abroad with a load of meatheads, they would be happy spending their down time drinking beer and getting a tan. He would miss libraries of home. When people around him didn't care about the problems of the World, he saw the intractable nuance of the World's problems and felt a deep helplessness.

Some of this was clearly depression, but I have to admit, 30 years after he shared those stories with me, there have been times I've been jealous of people who did not think through the detail and nuance and see the risks and lack of mitigations in so many circumstances. I'm not exceptionally smart, but I do seem to be a step or two ahead of ~30% of my colleagues and friends, and that seems to be enough to make life feel quite sad, quite a lot of the time.

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