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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#451

Post by dag11 »

DiffEq wrote: post #439
migro23 wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some elaboration on your opinion would provide a greater contribution to the discussion. As an aside however, 'Henry' in Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray provided the most beautiful and articulate defence of hedonism I have ever read. But I am still convinced that in relation to the project of the promotion of ones long-term well-being hedonism is a philosophical and psychological dead-end. In my own experience…

I don't want to speak for him, but I suppose I am until he pipes up, but I think bobsmooth was being sarcastic.

I don't want to speak for bobsmooth either but I'll take their comment at face value until given reason otherwise.

I agree with the sentiment, I think it's underrated. I live a fairly hedonistic life and I'm overall a very happy and content person. But I think hedonism only brings value in the context of an otherwise stable life at its foundation. You could make the argument that it's the stability that brings me happiness, but I've introspected about this a bunch and the pursuit of pleasure really does bring a large chunk of the sustained happiness.

As an aside, one of the common warnings/issues with hedonism is the hedonistic treadmill; that we become accustomed to our current pleasures and receive diminishing returns. But the way I think I get around that by rotating between various pleasures, so once I come back to one in particular it's once again novel.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#452

Post by adave »

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.

Its not a mathematical problem that you just compare the curves, some problems are hard and cannot be generalized.

And you are adding other factors if you think people who do not want kids are somehow the outliers. Same as if people wanted kids might be if you actually looked closely, for most people its not a very well thought out choice.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#453

Post by hbrn »

nonameiguess wrote: post #440
hbrn wrote: post #435

If consider yourself one of those people who are smart, but not happy, ask yourself these questions: Would you sacrifice a portion of your intelligence for an equal (whatever that might mean) portion of happiness? There are people that you would consider very dumb and very happy, do you desire to swap places with them? And finally, would you sacrifice all of your intelligence for eternal bliss? If the answer is no to…

I wish this view would gain more currency in the zeitgeist. Who do we grow up idolizing? I can't speak for everyone. Maybe somebody grows up looking at a Bob Ross or Tommy Chong or someone who seems to be happy all the time and thinks that is what they want to be. Not me. I was watching someone like Michael Jordan win over and over again, dominate competition, achieve at the top of his field. Did it make him happy? A…

Evolution seems to explain most of it. There's humanity as species, where decision making process is quite primitive, hormones drive most of it. And then there's humanity as civilization, where decisions are supposedly driven by culture and obtained knowledge. For millions of years hormones were the only tool for decision making and evolution was the only tool at our disposal for progress.

But now those two are at conflict, and the winner is clear. We are way past those times where evolution has any noticeable effect on our species. More has changed for humanity in the last 100 years than in 50,000 years somewhere in the middle of our history.

With this mindset, treating happiness as the ultimate goal seems ancient and barbaric. We're not cavemen anymore, it's no longer cool.

That said, it does give an easy meaning to those who can't choose the meaning themselves. If you don't have any purpose in life, happiness is the inherited factory default setting.

I decided I don't want to be a boring human being with factory default settings. I'd rather be wrong than boring.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#454

Post by hydrolox »

nootropicat wrote: post #193
Sebb767 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Logically, smarter people should be less happy, because they realize that important issues are borderline unsolvable in any realistic timeframes. You don't need to be very intelligent to consider climate a very hard problem. In fact, if we follow this logic, less smart people should be unhappier, since they are in an even worse position to do something, while smart people might choose to go into an engineering job…

I consider climate change a negligible issue, it's just the hype of the day, something you're "supposed" to virtue signal about. Even a 10C temperature change won't change much in the grand scheme of things. Average person is dumber each year because high iq is negatively correlated with fertility. On top of that populations are collapsing due to below replacement tfr. There's a real danger that technical civilizatio…

from what I've seen, 10c change (even in a developed country) would fundamentally change life and at least how much we spend on commodities like food, energy, water

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#455

Post by staticman2 »

dimensionc132 wrote: post #182

The authors seems to imply that that Christopher Langan who scores extraordinarily high on IQ tests and who is developing a Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" (CTMU), is somehow dumb or ill informed for believing that the 9/11 attacks and subsequent collapse of the twin towers and world trade centre building 7, was planned. Regardless of whether that is true or not, the author of the article takes direct aim…

Let's be clear, the article states Christopher Langan believes 911 was an inside job created specifically to distract the world from Christopher Langan's work.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#456

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

NotTameAntelope wrote: post #414
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have the life experience to know what will and won't affect you, and you've found an equilibrium of control and impact that apparently makes you happy. I think some people have too much empathy to ever reach that point. I have a few friends that literally broke out in tears when Russia began the invasion of Ukraine. They don't know a single person in Ukraine. Nothing about the war truly has an effect on their d…

What you're feeling is selfishness, not sociopathy, for what it's worth! I don't think a sociopath would wonder what you're wondering here, but I'm no expert.

I think of selfishness and I think of taking deliberate actions to serve ones self at the detriment of others. Things like hoarding limited resources or taking a second slice of cake before everyone has had their first.

I will never forgive you, John. You denied me cake.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#457

Post by Der_Einzige »

suoduandao2 wrote: post #385
gmays wrote: post #220

Reminds me of this quote from Stop Stealing Dreams [1]: > Philosopher Jeremy Bentham argued that if two kids playing hopscotch or push-pin are gaining as much joy and pleasure as someone reading poetry, they have enjoyed as much utility. > John Stuart Mill took a different approach. He argued, “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied…

"Brave new world" made a very good case for Mill's side of that argument. I found it convincing, for what that's worth.

I found both this book and the above JSM quote to be violently antithetical to the very existence of all pleasure seekers.

My disdain for them led me into the arms of the philosophers who don't hate pleasure and the sensual world, like Nietzsche, Max Stirner, and the works of the critical theorists.

The general disdain for hedonism felt in this world is extremely stupid. Brave New World is objectively a utopia, regardless whatever that one native american MC thought

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#458

Post by Panzer04 »

numbers_guy wrote: post #388
suoduandao2 wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 '…

I know I can work on my social skills. The compounding factor that ruins my chances is that I also am not physically attractive. So I get very few chances to practice my social skills. This whole getting few chances in the first place is what is making me unhappy and making me feel lonely. And before you ask, I do put a lot of effort into meeting new people. Thanks for the book suggestion, anyway.

What makes you think it's because you're unattractive? Even so, you can achieve a lot with 3 months of strength training at the gym. (hell, you'll see results in the first couple of weeks)

Consider that the vast majority of people don't even do that much - It doesn't take much to be above average.

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