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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#481

Post by LoveMortuus »

vorpalhex wrote: post #420
throw__away7391 wrote: post #272

I have noticed that a lot of/majority of "regular people" tend to coast along on the back of others as a way of life. If "smart people" are perceived by friends and family as being problem solvers, many will route their problems to a "smart friend", someone who seems to have their life somewhat in order or always have the answer to everything. I used to get an endless stream of requests for everything from technical…

Randomly say no. Not always, but occasionally roll a die and if it comes back a one, decline to help them and give a polite excuse. You still benefit others without them consuming all your time.

This actually sounds quite fun! Like actually rolling a dice in front of them and telling them that if it's a 1 or a 6 you won't be able to help them.

And if they ask why, you could just say that they saw the dice, the Gods have spoken and they don't want you to help them.

I might actually try this, could be fun!

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#482

Post by LoveMortuus »

random314 wrote: post #416
throw__away7391 wrote: post #272

I have noticed that a lot of/majority of "regular people" tend to coast along on the back of others as a way of life. If "smart people" are perceived by friends and family as being problem solvers, many will route their problems to a "smart friend", someone who seems to have their life somewhat in order or always have the answer to everything. I used to get an endless stream of requests for everything from technical…

Ha ha! So much this. Nowadays whenever I get a call from an old friend out of the blue, I know what it is. Tech interview help OR career advice.

Same!! That's why I just say "Hello here, how may I help you?"

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#483

Post by LoveMortuus »

dusted wrote: post #34

I'm not especially smart, or happy, but, personally, I don't know how to be it, or what it feels like. I know pleasure, but being in a constant pleasurable state is not what is meant by happiness as far as I know. Slavoj Žižek (someone who does seem to be especially smart): “Happiness was never important. The problem is that we don't know what we really want. What makes us happy is not to get what we want. But to dre…

I am biased against Slavoj Žižek because I'm not very fond of him.

I disagree with happiness not being important. It is important, but it is not something that you can have all of the time, because human mood, emotional state and the experience itself is always a wave, going up and down, constant fluctuation. A person needs to learn to identify where in the curve they are and not allow the curve to rule their life. Once your able to be aware of the curve you can start taking steps to decrease the down trend of the curve so that you can spend more time in the up trend.

Humans notice change - diff, if you will. Meaning if you were to be in absolute happiness for extended period of time, your frame of reference would slowly fade and you would no longer know what is happiness for you.

That's why, it is my personal opinion, that you should just sit down, drink a hot beverage of choice, acknowledge the Yin-Yang nature of reality and choose happiness.

No curve goes up or down for ever. I'm not a financial adviser.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#484

Post by LoveMortuus »

ahartmetz wrote: post #478
ycombinete wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t stand Zizek’s verbose nonsense. In this one paragraph he makes like 5 absurd statements one after the other, with such confidence and certainty that they look smart. The closing sentiment takes the cake for me. A neat little shanty of the mindset of the communist smart men.

Not to mention that Zizek talking sounds like someone slurping ramen. I understand the quotation (and only partially agree), but only because I've seen the same thing expressed much better, and without the absurd parts, in... the Unabomber manifesto. Basically, people need sensible difficulties to overcome.

Interesting, when I was describing Žižek to my brother, I said that he speaks as if he's constantly snoring cocaine.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#486

Post by davidguetta »

necovek wrote: post #470
davidguetta wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The article covers this as well: the author claims that studies show that all of those different intelligences correlate, so it is not very useful to categorise them individually. I would strongly doubt that they correlate tbh.. where would the "virgin math genius" cliché would come from ? I have been versed into various socio evonomic and hobby environement over my life, and have met natural geniuses in several un…

> I would strongly doubt that they correlate tbh.. where would the "virgin math genius" cliché would come from ? Article talks of scientific studies supporting that claim: you doubting it and sharing your anecdotal experience does not change what the stats say. I do welcome you to challenge those studies (that's what science is all about), but that's not done with "doubting" them on HackerNews. (Oh, and cliches are j…

I mean I understand and welcome you enthusiasm about science and research papers, unfortunately it's largely misguided in my opinion.

Even in actual scientific fields like computer science (In particular machine learning and reinforcement learning academic environement in which I work and hold a PhD) 'doubting' is necessary, since a large percentage of papers are unreproducible and largely biaised for publication... [0]

Regarding social sciences papers, I give 0 credit to any of them and that won't change soon.

First it's literally impossible define rigorously any term to differentiate (I mean seriously how are you going to "measure" emotional intelligence or entrepreneurship skills). Secondly there a large fraction of the field which is just pretending to do science and circlejkerking each other by accepting their own papers without rigorous due diligence, to the point they can't even detect hoax and fraud [1]

At the end of the day I am not here to fight you. If you don't believe me then be it but I stand by my assessment that various kind of intelligence are at best losely related. Some math genius are 100% clueless in emotional or business intelligence, some genius entrepreneurs are 100% clueless with math or girls, some really good artists completely clueless in business or academic stuff. Some athletes too... Of course some will have all but imo it's a lucky minority.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#487

Post by helloworld11 »

Sebb767 wrote: post #104
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…

> But being smart just means you know the awful reality of things. You don't need to be very smart to get existential dread from "climate change will kill us all and I can't influence much", "the upper class can still fully rule our lives" or "at some point, someone will create an AI that might kill us and there's not much anyone can do about it". Even someone hardly qualified to work at McDonalds can think that, usu…

If someone is convinced that climate change will kill us all then I'd say they're not exceptionally smart to begin with, and are misattributing to cynial high intelligence that which is the much more common phenomenon of media-induced blind hysteria.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#488

Post by latexr »

Jensson wrote: post #367
whatsreal wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see the argument. I hope I'm not mischaracterizing is by saying your position is something like: because I can look up the best and what that looks like it is boring to strive for it. The difference for me is I haven't experienced what it is like to be good. You know how an olympic gymnast makes insane feats of body control appear easy? I have no idea what that feels like. (and I never will, in my upper 30s I a…

People have treated me like a genius wherever I go. I got invited to do research in my freshman year in college. To me being among the best at something isn't very interesting, its just going through the motions, have gone through it many times. It gets boring quick, instead of focusing on one area I just went into new ones because it isn't fun to be among the best. But that gets tiring as well. Made lots of money wo…

Seems you’ve resigned yourself to “default boring”. That’s your prerogative, but it’s no different from the “existential dread attitude shift” which spurred the conversation.

You have the means to meaningfully improve the lives of others and are focusing on how to entertain yourself. Do something for another, like teaching them your skills or donating your money. Heck, start a non-profit which does both! It’s not as easy to be the best when your success depends on the outcome and performance of others.

Have you ever tried getting an addict in a bad place to straighten their life? Frustration is the opposite of boring. There is no formula for that problem or a myriad of other societal issues. There is no right answer for you to arrive at and be objectively the best. In the off-chance that you do crack it, you would have revolutionised at least one field, solved some of humanity’s problems, and gotten a challenge for a while.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#489

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

valeness wrote: post #245
ARandomerDude wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unsolicited advice from some random guy on the internet: Don't start down that road. Material success will always be just over the next hill, regardless of how much you already have. Happiness and satisfaction can't come from accomplishment or material gain.

Compared to what it was like when I was working at Walmart...? Yeah, material gain has certainly made me a thousand times happier. I haven't had to worry about an Electric bill in years. I used to have to navigate and memorize the electric company shutoff routine so I could pay as late as possible while selectively mitigating late fees and disconnect fees in relation to payday. I can afford to go on vacations now. Ta…

> Compared to what it was like when I was working at Walmart...?

No kidding. I wonder how many tech workers have had a job outside the industry. Money solved a whole shitload of my problems.

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