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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#331

Post by adamc »

First, I think the reasonable null hypothesis -- the hypothesis that needs to be disproven if you want to claim something -- is that intelligence is unrelated to happiness. That's the weakest, most natural assumption. So I don't really buy the framing of the article.

Specifically, I don't think there is any evidence that happiness comes from having "solved" problems in your life. It is well-known that winning the lottery doesn't change happiness -- you get happier for a short period, but then people seem to re-normalize to the new wealth level. Other changes in life circumstances seem similar.

Happiness as a transitory emotion certainly exists. But is happiness as a reportable statistic (like weight or income) meaningful? I think the null hypothesis should be "no". It isn't clear what we are measuring, or what it means in terms of our lives. If I report that I am happy, there is some notion that it is durable and meaningful, but three hours later, I may think about my relationship with my estranged kid and be feeling blue.

I don't think "happiness" has any meaning beyond "the emotions I feel this moment", which are inevitably a reflection of "what I have been thinking about in preceding moments". If I am working on an engineering problem and come to a satisfying solution, am I "happier" than I will be when thinking of my ex-wife?

As local "emotional weather", it's meaningful. As a reportable statistic, it's garbage.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#332

Post by pauldenton »

miketery wrote: post #279
shafyy wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just saying that comment I replied to makes this sound as universal truth. Wanting children and being happy about having children are subjective things. There are people who don't have children and are happy about it, people who have children but are unhappy about it and everything inbetween. People who want to have children should have them, and people who don't want to have children shoudln't have them =)

These debates always devolve into people pointing at outliers. Simply compare the two curves. Those with children vs those without. Your comment stands if you look at outliers, GP stands if you take the curves.

Does the experience of the Outlier not matter because it is not the regular experience?

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#334

Post by golergka »

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…

On the contrary, the more you learn about history of humanity, the more you appreciate the modern world for being uniquely wonderful in historical perspective.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#335

Post by Heston »

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…

The other side of this is that happiness is available to you as someone intelligent and aware of societies shortcomings when you use that intelligence at any opportunity to help the life around you. And that's an ongoing journey that requires maintenance not a one time event or goal.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#336

Post by magic_hamster »

I suppose I'm quite the idiot because for a big portion of the time, I'm happy. In a way, I learned to distance myself from things and people that made me unhappy; this was already a huge step towards happiness. Another thing was to learn to appreciate even the smallest things most people deem insignificant: a ride through town, the way the light breaks through the glass in the shower, an interesting pattern on the sidewalk, listening to the wind through the trees. I am a living being existing in this exact moment in time and space, experiencing life. And apparently, being a happy idiot.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#337

Post by [deleted] »

bgroat wrote: post #246

In my early teens my Dad said something to the effect of, "If you're so smart... how come nobody likes you?" Now, this sounds mean, but my Dad was a psychological genius. This was exactly what I, personally, needed to hear in order to trigger the thought, "Wait a minute.. these are social SKILLS... I should be able to learn them" And I could, and I did. A few years after that I asked myself, "If you're so smart, why…

[deleted]

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#338

Post by Jensson »

FFRefresh wrote: post #329
Jensson wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you need bias for the things you create for that to work. For me, if I create something then it isn't more interesting than if someone else created it, and creating something that is really interesting is really hard, people who can do that get rich.

You're focusing on how socially valued your creative work is (and how it ranks relative to others), which is an external factor. I tend to find that if you justify doing creative work on whether it'll be better/more interesting than others or you think it'll increase your status somehow (popularity/wealth), it's not as fulfilling and you'll probably never create anything. What I find more fulfilling is creating for i…

> Creating things that I find interesting

But I don't find the things I create to be interesting, that was my point. To me things aren't interesting just because I create them, but that seems to be the case for you, you think that the things you create are interesting somehow, I don't understand that.

Do you mean you find it interesting to learn how to create things? I can agree with that, but once I've learned to create something then I don't see why it would be interesting anymore. That feeling ends very quickly once you've created a few things and understand how to create most related things. If you have programmed games, web, low level and ML at a professional level there isn't much more fun things to learn in programming, and so on. And you get there very quickly if your goal is to learn those things and not to make the most money you can. And even learning more domains and more things gets boring after a while, as the process isn't that different between learning different things.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#339

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#340

Post by [deleted] »

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…

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