This author gets so many things wrong. Self-reported happiness, linking intelligence to results of synthetic tests, assuming that problem-solving capabilities makes people happier instead of having a different altitude to happiness, etc. American pop psychology poorly understands happiness and has an overly technical approach to it.
Why aren't smart people happier?
221–230 of 515 posts
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#222I... object to the premise of this articles in the strongest possible terms!
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 require…
I think both generalizations are off the mark a bit. A lot of young folks are very idealistic and think they can have a larger impact (i.e. fix the world's problems). You also have those that are self-focused. Some of that is combined - focused on self means you may have an over-inflated sense of what you can accomplish and how your contributions will be received.
A lot of that is why some young entrepreneurs do go on to actually change the world (and we definitely need those people, although it isn't always for the best). But most that think that's what they are going to do fail a few times, and become more realistic in their views of what they can accomplish.
Sometimes the smarter someone is, the more quickly they can think through the possible results and come to those conclusions that they probably aren't going to be one of the few that does succeed to change the world, and that can (to the overall point here) lead to a sense of sadness and loss, maybe without having gone through the effort and failure, even. Which is a bit sad for everyone, because some percentage of those people probably could succeed if they just got out of their own way and stopped over thinking things, also.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 thin…
i am not sure if this makes sense, but when i read your comment i wondered if part of the difficulty of finding friends is that smart people find it difficult to associate with people who are not as smart as them or do not have the same interests as them, and thus the problem becomes one of selection.
Maybe, and I could see this for top 1% people but I'm not that smart :)
For me its a time management thing, I am unable to figure out how to manage time for my own activities between looking after kids, working remote and just sitting around wasting time.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#225I don't understand why people are making correlations between intelligence and happiness. Seems kind of arbitrary.
Why aren't smart people taller?
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was expecting the OP to say that smarter people were less likely to be happy, because that is the sense a lot of us who believe ourselves to be "smart" have. But that's not what OP is about, and it suggests that's not really what the research says either, there's maybe a bit of hint of a small negative correlation like that, but mostly it says: no correlation. Rather than making the argument you are making, which I…
Problem is there is no real evidence provide to back the assertion. Is the ability to solve well-defined problems really different from the ability to solve poorly-defined problems? "One way to spot people who are good at solving poorly defined problems is to look for people who feel good about their lives" seems like a circular definition. So people that feel good do so because they are better at solving poorly defi…
> Is the ability to solve well-defined problems really different from the ability to solve poorly-defined problems?
It seems plausible. For instance, would a good accountant (well defined problems) necessarily make a good physicist (poorly defined problems)?
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> smarter people are better at answering all of the questions you listed Define 'better'. For example: > “How do I get my child to stop crying?” Lots of 'dumb' parents are very good at solving this question, they give the kid what they want and put them in front of the TV or give them a bunch of candy. Smart parents might overthink the question, read a book on parenting, try a naughty chair, fail and get stressed. Th…
The smart parents should at least notice that there's a tradeoff between long-term and short-term benefits and tackle it.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#228I don't understand why people are making correlations between intelligence and happiness. Seems kind of arbitrary. Why aren't smart people taller?
Presumably because happiness somewhat follows from material circumstances, and smarter people are more effective at obtaining better material circumstances. There is no such association with tallness.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#229The 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…
Serious question - how old are you? Anecdotally I’ve noticed smart people tend to have this attitude until their late 20s when it starts mellowing out. Now I’m a bit older I see my smarter friends happier than anyone and the less smart just about the same as always
Yeah, I find that looking at anything space-related helps me remember that our entire species and history are completely and utterly insignificant in the grander scheme of things. All this day-to-day drama just really isn’t that important.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier?
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
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!".
Is it nihilism? A plage could evolve and wipe out the human race at any time, a asteroid could end all life here in a instant. Most people are engaging in "nihilism" on those topics, and many others, but if they instead made the choice to dwell on them it wouldn't make them any less likely. I suggest simply you engage in "nihilism" on a few more things you have no control over.
>Is it nihilism?
Yes.
>You are probably like almost every other person who has ever lived, you don't matter at all. Nothing you do will meaningfully echo throughout history.
That sentence is basically the definition of nihilism. I don't see any possible interpretation of it which isn't categorically nihilistic.
>I suggest simply you engage in "nihilism" on a few more things you have no control over.
I get what you are saying, and broadly agree with it, but that wasn't the point of my comment.
I wasn't commenting on whether or not your take on the subject is helpful or not, just that the delivery of "you don't matter [...] enjoy it" is off-putting to the many people who don't take such a nihilistic viewpoint, and probably does no favors in convincing them such a view would be beneficial.