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Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#91

Post by cortesoft »

I do think an important part that we leave out when we analyze datapoints like "people who test well in one subject tend to test well in other subjects" is that "test taking" is itself a skill that people can be good or bad at.

I was always an expert test taker from a very young age. I loved standardized tests, and excelled every time.

I remember thinking many times how I was pretty sure I could do pretty well on a test on any subject, even if I didn't know the subject itself.

I had a chance to test (hah) that theory when I took a summer job at a college testing center when I was a college student myself. I would give out these tests in a number of different subjects, but I had time to kill while the students were taking the tests. I decided to try taking some for subjects I had never studied.

I scored well above the average scores on these subjects I knew nothing about, I just knew how tests were written. I could pick up context clues in the wording of questions, use my experience on how test questions usually go, and use clues from other parts of the test to figure out how to answer a different question.

That doesn't mean I was any good at those subjects, I just was good at that form of test.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#92

Post by RickJWagner »

paulpauper wrote: post #71
RickJWagner wrote: post #19

Lots of reasons, I suspect. Smart people are smarter than stupid people, but not that much smarter. They are subject to thinking they’ve got it all figured out, when really they don’t. Warren Buffett spoke several times about this, saying that he’d much rather deal with a person of middling IQ and some humility rather than a person with very high IQ but not as smart as they think. Then there are other attributes like…

Warren Buffett spoke several times about this, saying that he’d much rather deal with a person of middling IQ and some humility rather than a person with very high IQ but not as smart as they think. I'm pretty sure he never said that. He has become like Einstein, where people have projected their beliefs onto him.

Here’s one his quotes.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/12/heres-the-iq-score-warren-bu...

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#93

Post by RickJWagner »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #56
RickJWagner wrote: post #19

Lots of reasons, I suspect. Smart people are smarter than stupid people, but not that much smarter. They are subject to thinking they’ve got it all figured out, when really they don’t. Warren Buffett spoke several times about this, saying that he’d much rather deal with a person of middling IQ and some humility rather than a person with very high IQ but not as smart as they think. Then there are other attributes like…

I don't think Warren Buffet is the last word on this. The top of the IQ stratosphere is functionally unusual. Set a room full of 130s on a hard problem. When they get stuck, adding more 130s won't help. Throw a >160 into the room and see what happens. >160s don't necessarily think they have it all figured out. But as long as they're functional - not always easy - their raw ability at certain tasks is qualitatively di…

It’s funny you picked 160.

Buffett famously said “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with a 130 IQ. Rationality is essential”

Buffett said it in the book, “Warren Buffett Speaks.”

He also said if you do have an IQ of 160, you might as well give away 30 points, they’re not going to help you be a better investor.

Maybe he’s wrong, but at this time he’s regarded as one of the most successful investors ever, if not the very best.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#94

Post by irishcoffee »

paulpauper wrote: post #68
boznz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped viewing all news media companies five years ago. Real news will get to you pretty quickly by other means such as HN which I still frequent a couple of hours a week. Modern news is re-hashing even the trivial in the worst possible way and inviting the extreme idiots on both sides to fight it out in the comment section, I can honestly say I am missing nothing and still find myself informed and happier.

It is hard to abstain from news completely. The mainstream media is becoming increasingly like social media, feeding on shared sentiment and vague feelings of outrage.

It really isn’t. I haven’t watched the news on tv in probably 20 years, I haven’t had any social media accounts ever, and at this point I use the internet as part of my day job, to do my job.

It is absolutely amazing to be so disconnected and I encourage everyone to try it. People at work tell me about interesting things happening in the world, and my role and my spouses role at her job have the (mis) fortune of keeping me informed about the goings on in the wider world. But there is no spin.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#95

Post by abigdog »

I would rather know who is happy, what is meant by happy and why those cohorts are more happy. Smart may or may not be the primary thing. E.g. if parenthood makes one "happy" (defn. needed) and being smart makes you forgo that for ambition that would be interesting to know.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#97

Post by NishanStepak »

Emotional intelligence and rational intelligence are different things. If you believe in IQ, this is rational intelligence. If you believe in the measure of emotional intelligence, it is considered EQ. They are not the same, the ability to solve problems, is different than social skills.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#98

Post by mmorriso »

I find it interesting that there's an expectation that smart people would be happier.

Being smart is essentially "having a strong brain". Would we expect people with a strong back or legs to be happier? I wouldn't expect someone good a maths or puzzles to be any happier than someone good at carrying heavy things.

There's a difference between smart and wise. Some smart people become wise people, and I find them to be happy.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)

#99

Post by fn-mote »

paulpauper wrote: post #69
gregw2 wrote: post #44

Ugh. This analysis starts off a little interesting with its observation that "intelligence", as analyzed historically, tends to be about solving bounded-context problems (with a known right answer) rather than open-ended problems (D&D called this "wisdom", right?) But it is lacking so, so, so much in explaining why smart people aren't happier or evaluating the premises of the question. If my teenager gave me this ana…

It's a blog post. Unless you're reading Gwern or something, you shouldn't expect a really deep comprehensive take on an issue this ill-defined. I mean what does happiness mean? Its hard enough to get people to agree on that.

The point is that not all blog posts are worth reading.

This one mixes up enough truths and ideas that it doesn’t go anywhere interesting.

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