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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#151

Post by Jensson »

tartoran wrote: post #125
2000UltraDeluxe wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely! In the end, life will kill all of us at some point. Until then we have two choices: We either do what we can with what we have, or we don't.

That’s exactly my strategy for shutting down the existential dread mill. Whenever it bothers me too much I’m pointing my attention to how it all eventually turns to dust. The effect of that enables me to try to enjoy the now.

To me it is mostly that life is boring. At some point you have seen everything interesting and anything you see hence are just fitting into the same basic patterns. Discussions, tv shows, books etc. Living is still better than not living, but every time you experience something new the things left to experience becomes smaller. A few romance movies and you have seen all of them, a few action movies etc, or even psychology papers or math papers etc.

You haven't seen all of them, but the more you see the less value you get from seeing another. So we can conclude that living for an eternity wouldn't be particularly more interesting than living for 100 years, as 100 years is more than enough to see many things in each category. You might not become a world expert in everything, but experiencing the things worth experiencing in the categories doesn't take particularly long to do and after that life is just padding.

The main reason to live now is that there are new interesting things coming out still, since computers are still young. That adds new things over the years. But interesting progress isn't really the norm, it isn't like physics or math has gotten any more interesting over my lifetime and I expect computers to get there before I die and then there isn't much left.

Edit: For example, everything we produce today is based on the same math and physics my grandfather learned in college. There has been no practical progress since then there. Main thing since is new tools enabled by computers that are more precise or automate things, that is interesting but the discoveries enabled by more automation/precise tools will run out at some point.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#152

Post by nickd2001 »

Jensson wrote: post #131
badpun wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's just increased wisdom and maturity. Some people need a certain number of years (their twenties) before you start noticing how pointless and bad for you it is to be angry at the world.

I think it is more you start out trying to fix the worlds problems, and then after some years you give up and become happier. I don't think it is wisdom or maturity, many people give up as a kid and just go through the motions from the start, I wouldn't call those wise or mature.

Speaking as someone not totally young, and (hopefully) not totally un-smart, I think its true one mellows out with age, also you can "be the change you want to see". That to me is the only thing we can do. If we all do our bit we can make things a bit better. Some people can make a disproportionately large positive difference. Its never too late to do that.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#154

Post by karaterobot »

lostmsu wrote: post #149
h0l0cube wrote: post #89

The crux of the article: > Spearman was right that people differ in their ability to solve well-defined problems. But he was wrong that well-defined problems are the only kind of problems. “Why can’t I find someone to spend my life with?” “Should I be a dentist or a dancer?” and “How do I get my child to stop crying?” are all important but poorly defined problems. “How can we all get along?” is not a multiple-choice…

That's wish-washing the answer where none is needed. I bet you smarter people are better at answering all of the questions you listed. Cursory search on IQ vs marital status confirms that.

Ahh, the power of a cursory search to prove just about anything. What about the arguments given in the article?

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#155

Post by ziddoap »

willcipriano wrote: post #58
okamiueru wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if wisdom really helps. Or, maybe I just feel that way, because I lack it. How would wisdom help with happiness, when you see a likely worsening climate, rampant inequality for really no good reason, which together with the former is bound to cause significant sivil unrest and wars in the coming decades? In my limited version of it, is to strive to be humble, and the happiness for those around you. Find…

> when you see a likely worsening climate, rampant inequality for really no good reason What are you, as an individual able to do about any of that? Think about it the other way, if you wanted to make it worse could you meaningfully? Could you make the seas rise by even a single millimeter? Probably not. Now say you wanted to make it better, a single private jet trip for a CEO to visit his mistress will wipe out any…

Not everyone finds comfort in nihilism; it can be pretty off-putting to read something like "you don't matter at all, and will be quickly forgotten" and than be told "so, enjoy!".

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#157

Post by nickd2001 »

dusted wrote: post #34

I'm not especially smart, or happy, but, personally, I don't know how to be it, or what it feels like. I know pleasure, but being in a constant pleasurable state is not what is meant by happiness as far as I know. Slavoj Žižek (someone who does seem to be especially smart): “Happiness was never important. The problem is that we don't know what we really want. What makes us happy is not to get what we want. But to dre…

I can guarantee, that trying to make someone else happy, will never ever fail to make you happy :). Even in the unlikely event you fail to make that person happy, the effort of trying is fulfilling. Now the problem is, most of us , myself included, forget to direct our efforts to making others happy. I imagine God up there like an exasperated parent : "If only you guys would actually listen to what I suggested, you know, loving each other and stuff, you would actually be happier. You know that? but instead you insist on being out for yourselves"

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#159

Post by badpun »

Jensson wrote: post #131
badpun wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's just increased wisdom and maturity. Some people need a certain number of years (their twenties) before you start noticing how pointless and bad for you it is to be angry at the world.

I think it is more you start out trying to fix the worlds problems, and then after some years you give up and become happier. I don't think it is wisdom or maturity, many people give up as a kid and just go through the motions from the start, I wouldn't call those wise or mature.

> I think it is more you start out trying to fix the worlds problems,

I can't think of that many young twenty-somethings who want to fix the worlds problems. If anything, younger people are more focused on themselves [1] that people after the 30-35 yo mark.

[1] That's not an accusation or anything. It's natural that, when you're young, you need to figure out who you are and what you want out of life, and that requires a lot of focusing on oneself. Not to mention just growing into being an actual adult is also not easy and requires a lot of trial, error and introspection - something that is not as required when one is older and more formed already.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#160

Post by wonderwonder »

Apreche wrote: post #40

The smarter people see the truth of the world and the universe. If the truth was good, that we lived in a wonderful society with wonderful people in a universe that cares about us, smart people would be so happy. But being smart just means you know the awful reality of things. Congrats, you learned about all these awful things you can’t do much to fix, and the reward is you get to experience existential dread. Congra…

I very much disagree with this, just look at politics; everyone sees / imagines the "awful reality of things". Whenever the other side is in power the out of power side thinks everything is terrible and the world is ending. Even though objectively everything is pretty much the same. Objectively the world is only getting better over time. Generally the loudest people on each side screaming that its the end of all things are not the pinnacle of intelligence. I like the authors theory that happiness involves "skill at solving poorly defined problems". Think about how many smart people on this board complain about being lonely and unable to find friends. The ability to feel satisfied with one's lot in life is probably much more of a driver for happiness than being able to get a 1600 on the SAT. I consider myself relatively intelligent but was heavily involved in politics when I was younger and worrying about things. As I got older I realized I was wasting my time. I cant change anything and my life is slipping past. It really clicked for me when I went to the parkland anti gun rally in DC because my wife wanted to go. There were hundreds of thousands of people there and at the end of the day, nothing changed and politicians just closed their blinds or left work early to avoid the gridlock. The only way to affect change on a large scale is with very large amounts of money. Short of that, I just focus on my family and myself and things are much better. Took my kid to baseball tryouts the other day after practicing with him all week and it was awesome. Still cant figure out how to get IRL friends though :)
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