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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#371

Post by jyscao »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #342

This question generally presupposes a misunderstanding of the physiological purpose and phenomenological experience of happiness. Happiness by its nature is not sustainable. Contentment and well being with a high happiness surface area and a low suffering surface area is sustainable. This does not look very dramatic from the outside, and is poorly captured by many metrics. Neuroticism might be one of the best psychom…

>Neuroticism might be one of the best psychometrics, with most people experiencing only a small decrease over a life time, with some experiencing a very large one.

Would you say this is more of a nature or nurture effect? I.e. some people naturally decrease in their neuroticism levels as they mature and most people don't, OR a small percentage of people stabilize their lives and statuses in their respective societies, which presumably leads to a decrease in their neuroticism levels.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#372

Post by strangattractor »

Who says they aren't happier and why should the two even be connected (correlation vs causation)? For myself - much of the unhappiness I feel is connected to things out of my control. Being smarter will have little or no effect. "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" changed the way I think about happiness a great deal. Smart people know that meta-analysis is often wrong:)

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#373

Post by jyscao »

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…

>Congrats, you have learned the history of humanity and how our society functions, and your reward is you get to be angry at the vast amount of injustice.

I think you're imbuing your own value judgements into this. Many of us don't share the same urge to fix everything that's "wrong" with the world or society, and simply learn to accept it and roll with punches. But that still doesn't mean we're happier in life.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#375

Post by 8bitbuddhist »

pauldenton wrote: post #322
rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Buddhism, they advise against spending time pondering "unanswerable questions." [1] If you know a question is unanswerable, and mulling it over makes you unhappy, then it's foolish to continue thinking about it. You can just leave it be and move on with your life. I think most people eventually figure this out on their own some time in their late 20s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_unanswered_questions#Sabb…

I thought Zen Buddhists pondered unanswerable questions, like what is the sound of one hand clapping.

I'm not too familiar with Zen, but questions like these are often meant to be nonsense questions with no answer. They push you to think harder and harder until you realize the futility of doing so, at which point you've found the "real" answer.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#376

Post by ta988 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #274
ta988 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think academic success only involves well-defined problems even if your work doesn't involve research and just teaching. Being able to convey properly ideas, concepts and information to students is not a well defined problem...

Oh, I think OP is talking about success in school as a student, particularly children in "lower" education (K-12), not adults in post-graduate academic careers.

Oh makes much more sense. Thanks.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#378

Post by suoduandao2 »

numbers_guy wrote: post #355

For me it is quite simply because I lack the human touch. Due to a multitude of compounding factors I cannot manage to find a soulmate, and life alone is miserable. I don't see how being smart would help in this situation. If anything it makes it harder to connect with someone, because the pool of compatible people is smaller.

Regarding the loneliness problem, that isn't as intractible as I used to think it was for us Venusians. In my case it was largely an issue of getting my emotional algorithms right, which requires effort that isn't quite intellectual effort - but intellectual capacity certainly helps understand what the new version should look like.

If you're interested in solving this problem for yourself I would recommend the book 'models' by Mark Manson, reading it made a world of difference for me.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#379

Post by starwind »

I’ve seen some other studies that say the opposite and I’m generally skeptical of results that come out of the GSS (it’s too easy to data dredge). There’s a decent amount of evidence that IQ positively correlates with happiness. Here’s a study I found real quick: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22998852/

Results: Happiness is significantly associated with IQ. Those in the lowest IQ range (70-99) reported the lowest levels of happiness compared with the highest IQ group (120-129). Mediation analysis using the continuous IQ variable found dependency in activities of daily living, income, health and neurotic symptoms were strong mediators of the relationship, as they reduced the association between happiness and IQ by 50%.

There’s also evidence that IQ correlates with education, income, number of friends, lifespan, having a successful marriage, and having the desired number of children you desire (in case that’s not clear here’s an example: if you want 2 kids, it’s more likely you end up with 2 kids the higher your IQ). All that surely plays into happiness

Disclaimer: Individual results may vary

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