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Why aren't smart people happier?

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Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#621

Post by lisdexan »

kaicianflone wrote: post #512
lisdexan wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Religion is not my jam, but isn't it a little... crass to talk about your deity like that? The evangelical industrial-scale proselytizing always seemed kinda disrespectful to the whole "finding truth, hope, and transformation in Him", like god-almighty needed a used car salesman to connect with people. Plus, it's not the best moment to make this point considering that Mohamed is probably going overtake Jesus on the r…

I get that. I’ve felt the same cringe at times. The sense that faith is being sold instead of shared. The irony is that the heart of Christianity doesn’t need promotion. It’s supposed to be recognized in how people live, not in how loudly they talk. For me, following Jesus has nothing to do with market share or population stats. If every chart in the world dropped tomorrow, He’d still be who He is. Faith isn’t about…

I know you feel deeply about this, but you started with the angle of "Christianity numba 1", then after I disagree you say numbers actually never mattered.

>Moments when faith didn’t arrive through conquest like most believe, but through divine encounter.

You imply that syncretism rather than conquest was the reason LATAM became catholic, but just an hour before you said:

>You’re absolutely right that many nations were converted by force or politics. History is full of that tension. The message of Christ abused in ways completely opposite to what He taught in the Scripture.

>What’s always struck me, though, is how the faith survived despite those abuses. Every empire that tried to use Christianity as a weapon eventually crumbled, but the core message kept resurfacing through people who lived it voluntarily. Saints, reformers, monks, ordinary believers who loved instead of coerced.

So after all it was conquest, but the divine message resurfaced despite the abuses. It all sounds very Groucho Marx "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well I have others".

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#622

Post by lo_zamoyski »

never_inline wrote: post #406
lo_zamoyski wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a double-edged sword. A properly disciplined person is capable of great things according to the measure of his intellectual power and his discipline. However, without discipline, that extra horsepower can be a force multiplier for error, and more intricate rationalizations can make it easy to lodge yourself in a web of false justifications. This is one reason why the ancients and the medievals always emphasized…

Idk about the modern meaning of virtue but doesn't "virtus" in roman mean something like "bravery" and "manliness". (Probably cognate to sanskrit "vIryam"

It isn't some modern meaning I'm referring to. I'm speaking of the general notion of virtue discussed by Aristotle or expressed in things like the four cardinal virtues (among which you will find courage, opposed to cowardice) and so on.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#625

Post by hearsathought »

a123b456c wrote: post #561
hearsathought wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's things like relationships, satisfying work, accomplishment. (and many, many more) That's the point. Smarter people tend to have more stable relationships, satisfying work, accomplishments. ( and many, many more ). > How many of those happiness 'sources' are made better by intelligence? All of them. You get better jobs with intelligence. You achieve greater accomplishments via intelligence. And your relationshi…

You had me until you said that "all of it is fleeting and ultimately meaningless - relationships, work, accomplishments. (and many, many more)" My dear friend. These are the only types of meaning that matters, and its fleeting nature is why we need to appreciate and savor them.

> These are the only types of meaning that matters

They may or may not be the only types of meaning that matter. Regardless, the fleeting nature of those moments ultimately make them meaningless and most people are not happy about it.

> and its fleeting nature is why we need to appreciate and savor them.

We can appreciate those moments. We can savor those moments. But we can't be happy about the fleeting nature of it. For most people, the fleeting nature of those moments are a source of sadness. It's why smart people invented religion or other means of rationalization to bring permanence and meaning to the impermanent and meaningless.

Smart people tend to realize this and hence are sadden by it. Some accept it. Some use religion/rationalization as a form of escapism. But the truth is the truth.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#626

Post by BeFlatXIII »

Nathanba wrote: post #517
robot-wrangler wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. A useful analogy is to imagine being an adult in a world populated only by children. Aside from the social alienation of it being hard to relate to others, there would be practical matters. The entertainment would all be tedious and predictable, all the rationalizations for bad behavior would be transparently self-interested. Enhanced capabilities for observation, prediction, and planning would make you a super-…

yes and those children have money, power and jobs and you have to navigate that somehow without sparking their very irrational, very easily sparked ire.

Classroom votes in elementary school where my less-talented classmates counted just as much as mine blackpilled me on democracy.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#627

Post by BeFlatXIII »

foobarian wrote: post #508
somenameforme wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd take a different answer to this question: philosophy. In times before Abrahamic religion developing or adopting a life philosophy was seen as a practical obligation for a man. This is where you saw the rise of everything from the Pythagorean to the Stoics. It seems that the rise of Abrahamic religions is what largely brought an end to this and mandated a sort of one-size-fits-all philosophy for everybody. Now in…

> collapse of fertility in developed nations My pet theory is that once societies stop enslaving women, enough choose not to bear children to skew the stats below replacement level.

IMO, the birth rate drops to replacement level when women are freed. It's additional pressures that collapse it from replacement (or a slow decline 1.9) to South Korean levels.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#628

Post by kaon_2 »

I once read a fascinating booklet that made the argument that "intelligence" as we call it evolved out of the ability to track better. Early hominids had many different skills, but improved reasoning capability paid for itself evolutionary speaking by making you a much better tracker. You spot measure the temperature of droppings, and reason that a gazelle was here only 2 hours ago. You see the tracks and notice that the gazelle was probably in the shade to avoid the midday sun. Now it must be thirsty and is therefore likely to go visit the stream nearby.

In that context, "Intelligence" is just one part of a collection of useful skills for a band of early hominids. You only need a few great trackers, but those trackers would be grateful if they also had some "meatheads" in the crew that are phenomenally atletic. And who knows; early hominids would mock each other for not being good at tracking, but would they call each other dumb? I somehow doubt it.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#629

Post by staticman2 »

somenameforme wrote: post #554
foobarian wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> collapse of fertility in developed nations My pet theory is that once societies stop enslaving women, enough choose not to bear children to skew the stats below replacement level.

People overwhelmingly view the ideal number of children to have as way more than we're having. [1] So people are likely choosing to not having children for other reasons. [1] - https://news.gallup.com/poll/694640/americans-ideal-family-s...

The question is "What do you think is the ideal number of children for a family to have? ?"

Not "Do you want a family?" Or "Do you want children?"

So it seems to me it will not measure the preferences of Americans very well. Since it did not ask about those preferences.

Re: Why aren't smart people happier?

#630

Post by rekabis »

I have long since come to the conclusion that happiness is a bullshit goal. It’s like trying to capture Fae - are you sure it even exists? I’m not so sure.

Buddhism, in particular, teaches that wants will only ever cause pain and suffering, and when happiness is not something you can directly control - it arises out of conditions and situations you find yourself in - seeking and pursuing happiness is a fool’s errand. You will always suffer in those periods between bouts of happiness.

For me, I have focused on a much more concrete goal: *satisfaction.*

Particularly, satisfaction from having achieved the goals and targets I have set for myself, and in general, even the random shit that life throws at me. To tackle them and process/overcome/complete them to a quality or level or degree that I can be satisfied with.

And as someone with a nasty Voltron of ADD and Asperger’s, that threshold for satisfaction can often be disturbingly high.

Satisfaction does bring a certain degree of pleasure and happiness in of itself, but far more importantly it brings a degree of encouragement to keep moving forward in this capitalistic hellhole that is hurtling the human race (and potentially even the planet) towards full extinction within our lifetimes.

And as a coping mechanism, it works. Quite well, actually.

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