Knowing the retention time of CO2 in the atmosphere makes you BOTH smarter AND more worried.
Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
241–250 of 453 posts
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#242I will speak from my experience. When I was younger, I considered myself very smart, and I was pretty unhappy. As I grew, I met people much smarter than me; I stopped seeing myself as "the smart" one, and now I am pretty happy. It's not that I became happier because I became less smart; I became happier when I stopped thinking my value was based on my intelligence, so I stopped trying to be recognized by my intellect…
how did you make this transition? i still, deep down, identify as being "smart". i don't like being wrong, and it's my go-to ego lick at work, "well bad thing x may have happened, but at least I'm still valued for being smart". it was my label in high school that i've never quite shed. obviously now i have so many more facets - father, husband, leader, writer/reader. Smartness is just raw horsepower, it's what you do…
For me it was a combination of being around people much smarter than me (I got lucky and worked at some crazy places) and realizing how disfunctional they are. There is some happy medium where you can be pretty smart and realize you are a normal person.
I've met people that are about my intelligence, who have been better educated than me, and they think they are fucking brilliant and it's just tiring as shit. They are insufferable to be around. Honestly I think a lot of silicon valely/tech bro people are a fucking chore to deal with because they have this "I'm so smart" attitude.
If you want to check your ego, try to prove yourself wrong, test theories, talk to people to get their perspective and actually try to understand them. At some point you realize how much you don't understand about the world, about other fields, and about other people's experience.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#243As others have noted being smart will enable you to comprehend more of the World around you. This will in turn increase the amount of negativity you can be exposed to.
But in my opinion this ultimately comes down to your thinking patterns. Those must be practiced and learned. If you do not make an effort to adopt positive thinking patterns about the information you perceive you will become unhappy, as the negative patterns appear to be the default. What you become aware of, how you process it and form a conclusion, is your subjective experience.
Most people agree that exercise is healthy for your body. But if your form is lacking you can injure yourself quite severely.
In my experience, low self esteem and harboring negative emotions can be the cause of a "bad thinking form".
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
pretty sure if you're commenting on here then you're way above average. It's not a compliment, its just that you're misunderstanding how low the bar is.
That seems like some gatekeeping egoistical hi-ground. I refuse to believe the average person here is any more intelligent than the average person on the street.
> I refuse to believe the average person here is any more intelligent than the average person on the street.
This is a website of words. The average person looks almost exclusively at moving pictures.
I'd suggest we're at least top 5% of some key things that make up intelligence: like curiosity and intellectual bravery.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
pretty sure if you're commenting on here then you're way above average. It's not a compliment, its just that you're misunderstanding how low the bar is.
> It's not a compliment Thanks, you had me feeling all smug and then you had to add that part.
Aw, sorry. I just wanted to sound sincere. Like you're underestimating yourself or well er.... others. Idk I'm sure you're smart. Stupid people think they're _really_ smart, imho being smart is mostly associated with having some level of self-doubt.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#246> "Müller-Lyer illusion, the two lines that look like they’re different lengths but aren't"
I hate that the author gave a picture in which the two lines actually are of different lengths, as you can see from trying to pick a rectangular screenshot.
I'd quantify the exact feature in the line that I'm using for reference (which would be by itself ironic considering the discussion on well-defined relations between entities attached to that picture), but it's unnecessary - none of them match!
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#247IME a lot of smart people aim at optimizing for whatever system they find themselves in, rather than questioning that system and asking themselves if it’s actually the life they want. And so you get an army of very bright people all jumping through the same hoops to achieve the same goals, and half of them are miserable.
As someone who spends far too much time questioning the system, I often assume the hoop-jumpers are somehow happier. I wonder if life would be easier if I stopped worrying about the big picture.
Bering "dumb" for a day just to know if I could be happier... I feel you.
My way to her happier was too stop following global news, even regional news. People around me well tell me the important things anyway. Don't use the so called "social media"!
With so much free energy and attention, I now care about the areas that I can positively influence: me, close family, neighbors, friends, work, remote family.
That is much more rewarding and makes me happy!
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#248IME a lot of smart people aim at optimizing for whatever system they find themselves in, rather than questioning that system and asking themselves if it’s actually the life they want. And so you get an army of very bright people all jumping through the same hoops to achieve the same goals, and half of them are miserable.
As someone who spends far too much time questioning the system, I often assume the hoop-jumpers are somehow happier. I wonder if life would be easier if I stopped worrying about the big picture.
I got to this point somewhat recently, I stopped worrying, I kind of broke. I still think about the big picture a few hundred times a day, but went from worrying about it and thinking it was something I could do anything about, and really am just kind of a nihilist now. I was a nihilist for a time as a teenager, saw the world, grew to want a better world, got mad (still am pretty mad) that we don't live in a better world (good job greed), and now I am just idk, participating in the circus for what it is.
A whole combination of things lead to that last year, I had to fire a bunch of people, quit my job, trump, family stuff, living situation stuff, dog passing, etc. But ya, not fun to go through, but I would say life is a little easier if you stop worrying about the big picture, you don't have to stop thinking about it or paying attention, but just recognize there's basically fuck all you can do by just worrying about it.
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#249I will speak from my experience. When I was younger, I considered myself very smart, and I was pretty unhappy. As I grew, I met people much smarter than me; I stopped seeing myself as "the smart" one, and now I am pretty happy. It's not that I became happier because I became less smart; I became happier when I stopped thinking my value was based on my intelligence, so I stopped trying to be recognized by my intellect…
I’m quite happy that my friends have labelled me as “an absolute idiot with anything but computers.” It’s much easier to relate to people at that level, adopt a happy-go-lucky attitude, and being wrong about 99% of things. being the smart one isn’t such a great label, and is (mostly) all in your head
Re: Why aren't smart people happier? (2022)
#250> "Müller-Lyer illusion, the two lines that look like they’re different lengths but aren't" I hate that the author gave a picture in which the two lines actually are of different lengths, as you can see from trying to pick a rectangular screenshot. I'd quantify the exact feature in the line that I'm using for reference (which would be by itself ironic considering the discussion on well-defined relations between entit…
They are the same length.
Look at the points of the arrows and crooks of the branches.