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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#61

Post by esseph »

vorpalhex wrote: post #47
supportengineer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Ancient peoples were able to do all of their basic work in a few hours a day, the rest was leisure time.

That's trivially false. Ancient people were always working, and we can see this in people who maintain primative lifestyles. Take bread. You start the oven at 4am. By 5am it is hot enough for your meats. By 7am extinguish, by 8am start your bread and go until 6-7pm. Now you get to start your dough for tomorrow, typically working until 11pm. Historically bakers were known to sleep in flour hoppers as they were spared…

This is easily proven incorrect.

Ancient Rome worked on an 8 day workweek, and traditionally the 8th day was a rest day.

Ancient Greeks didn't have weekly days off... but they had up to 120 festivals a year where shops and businesses would be shut down.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#63

Post by kaicianflone »

Ardon wrote: post #53

Might be useful to ask a different question: What makes people happy? It's things like relationships, satisfying work, accomplishment. (and many, many more) Then the real question emerges: How many of those happiness 'sources' are made better by intelligence? What percentage? Relationships? Seems like no. Work? Also seems like no, lots of work doesn't make use of a high IQ that people enjoy nonetheless. Accomplishmen…

Ignorance is bliss

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#64

Post by palmotea »

MangoToupe wrote: post #59
Slow_Hand wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone wants to be happy, but nobody wants to be happy with what they have.

Doesn't everyone want to be happy with what they have? Why would you not want that. Like, ideally we'd all be happy with nothing, right?

> Doesn't everyone want to be happy with what they have?

No, most people think getting more (or getting something else) will make them happy.

> Why would you not want that. Like, ideally we'd all be happy with nothing, right?

Because it's hard to become wise, and that's not what society teaches.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#65

Post by vorpalhex »

esseph wrote: post #61
vorpalhex wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's trivially false. Ancient people were always working, and we can see this in people who maintain primative lifestyles. Take bread. You start the oven at 4am. By 5am it is hot enough for your meats. By 7am extinguish, by 8am start your bread and go until 6-7pm. Now you get to start your dough for tomorrow, typically working until 11pm. Historically bakers were known to sleep in flour hoppers as they were spared…

This is easily proven incorrect. Ancient Rome worked on an 8 day workweek, and traditionally the 8th day was a rest day. Ancient Greeks didn't have weekly days off... but they had up to 120 festivals a year where shops and businesses would be shut down.

Nundinae was only for the ruling class to go shopping

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nundinae

So sorry, you still get to bake bread all day.

And Greek festival days involved.. lots of food, baths had to be hot, etc. So someone has to run the event. It wasn't the common people getting a day off.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#66

Post by interstice »

Ardon wrote: post #53

Might be useful to ask a different question: What makes people happy? It's things like relationships, satisfying work, accomplishment. (and many, many more) Then the real question emerges: How many of those happiness 'sources' are made better by intelligence? What percentage? Relationships? Seems like no. Work? Also seems like no, lots of work doesn't make use of a high IQ that people enjoy nonetheless. Accomplishmen…

You could also say that the hedonic treadmill runs faster. Getting a result that takes a smart person a day instead of lets say a week means repeating that 7 times (successfully) to feel like the week was well spent.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#67

Post by koakuma-chan »

blauditore wrote: post #50
malkocoglu wrote: post #2

Because there are lots of stupid people around them that make life miserable for everybody, not only themselves ! Note: I wrote this comment after reading just the title...

> Note: I wrote this comment after reading just the title... Not sure if the irony is intended, but I find it hilarious.

If you want me to read your article it has to be at most 1024 characters and served as text/plain

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#68

Post by tantalor »

kaicianflone wrote: post #63
Ardon wrote: post #53

Might be useful to ask a different question: What makes people happy? It's things like relationships, satisfying work, accomplishment. (and many, many more) Then the real question emerges: How many of those happiness 'sources' are made better by intelligence? What percentage? Relationships? Seems like no. Work? Also seems like no, lots of work doesn't make use of a high IQ that people enjoy nonetheless. Accomplishmen…

Ignorance is bliss

'tis folly to be wise

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#70

Post by dingnuts »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #57
codyklimdev wrote: post #15

I think beyond a certain level surplus IQ begins to cause problems. While still useful, the amount of self-sabotage and thought spirals the brain can generate with the extra power can cause neuroses and unhappiness on a larger scale than those less intelligent are capable of. Combine it with higher societal expectations and it's no great mystery to me why smarter people seem unhappier. Just my thoughts anyways. I'm a…

Or, you could just ask "Why aren't people happy?". I don't see how IQ could make you happier. Smart people are not as smart as they think, they usually perform better because they're overspecialized. Now, emotional intelligence, that would greatly influece your happiness. The hurdles you're talking about are emotional, not intellectual.

usually when people talk about emotional intelligence, they mean Big 5 Agreeableness plus Openness, which can be measured. If your hypothesis is correct there should be data on the potential correlation between those traits and self reported happiness
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