Why aren't smart people happier?

It's less about making an argument for the "correct" definition of "smart"; and more about saying that the way psychologists measure "intelligence" (eg when trying to study things like "are smarter people more or less happy") is measuring success at solving well-defined problems. That things like IQ tests as well as academic success are about solving well-defined problems.

You can think "smart people" are whatever you want, it's not about any "true" definition of what "smart" means, it's just a word that means different things to different people -- often probably not very rigorously defined or consistently applied. The OP is in fact about investigating what some of these different meanings may be with relevance to correlation to happiness.

Jefferson argued that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights", he also owned slaves. Do you argue that men are not equal?

Take the good parts, leave the bad. Like it or not Christ was one of the great moral philosophers. His surmon on the mount was revolutionary for it's time[0]. You can read it without believing in the magic, in the same way you can read the Tao Te Ching or Art of War while not being a Taoist or a general.

[0]if you aren't familiar check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3nN9-C1yKU

I think we have different experiences then. Or, maybe, your interpretation of 'seeing the awful' is different.

I see 'dumb' people fall for pyramid schemes/MLM which seem obvious to me. They will only see the awful after they've lost money. We both see it, but there's a period where they don't, while I do.

I see people fall for sales tactics and which are transparent to me. Getting a €400 discount on an €800 delivery package for a second hand car that has €150 in actual value, does not seem like a deal to me. Others are very happy and are happy the sales person gave them the fake discount.

When other people are happy that the government reduces taxes on gas due to rising prices, I see rising corporate profits that were paid for with public funding.

When some people get angry about the conspiracy they read on Facebook, I get angry about the manipulation going on that caused that conspiracy to spread.

In the end, in my experience, the 'dumb' people see awful more on the micro level, while I see it more on the macro level. That probably probably makes us just about as unhappy about the stuff that happens around us, just from completely different perspectives.

The only real difference I see, is that I seem to have a harder time finding people to discuss things with than the average person seems to. Where 'dumb people' just seem to be able to repeat talking points and opinions they've heard somewhere, I often prefer more in depth discussions and conversations on the why and how, causing me to be an outsider (sometimes).

If you're smart then you're probably in a field that has infinite opportunities and paths available. If you're not, you've probably landed in the niche that works nicely for you.

The former's potential is near infinite, the latter is pretty damn close to their endgame and happy to repeat till retirement.

Sidebar I dislike the term smart, I make no intentional judgements in this comment in regards to intelligence or lack of in comparison to career choice. I know plenty of people who have been called smart (including myself under protest) who are absolute doofuses outside of their field haha. Smart might as well just mean specialised in something that took more than 4 years to learn.

Even despite trying to be super delicate there.. actual smarts vs not smarts (normal definition) is probably similar. Smart folks have more potential to live up to.