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Intelligent People tend to be Unhappy


Soy

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Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

- Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)

Hemingway, who took his own life in 1961, knew his share of both intelligent people and of unhappiness. He lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, four wives and an unknown number of failed romantic relationships, none of which would help him to develop happiness if he knew how.

As Hemingway's quote was based on his life experience, I will base the following speculation on both my personal and my professional experience as a sociologist. Not enough study exists to quote on this subject.

Western society is not set up to nurture intelligent children and adults, the way it dotes over athletes and sports figures, especially the outstanding ones. While we have the odd notable personality such as Albert Einstein, we also have many extremely intelligent people working in occupations that are considered among the lowliest, as may be attested by a review of the membership lists of Mensa (the club for the top two percent on intelligence scales).

Education systems in countries whose primary interest is in wealth accumulation encourage heroes in movies, war and sports, but not in intellectual development. Super intelligent people manage, but few reach the top of the business or social ladder.

Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional (psychological) and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more activities by other children than they are included in. They are "odd," they are the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socially as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportunities may exist for more progress.

Their emotional development, characterized by their ability to cope with risky or stressful situations, especially over long periods of time, also lags behind that of the average person.

Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the intelligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience. They go through the tough times alone. Adults don't understand that they need help and other kids don't want to associate with kids the social leaders say are outsiders.

As a result we have many highly intelligent people whose social development progresses much slower than that of most people and they have trouble coping with the stressors of life that present themselves to everyone. It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of prison inmates are socially and emotionally underdeveloped or maldeveloped and a larger than average percentage of them are more intelligent than the norm.

Western society provides the ideal incubator for social misfits and those with emotional coping problems. When it comes to happiness, people who are socially inept and who have trouble coping emotionally with the exigencies of life would not be among those you should expect to be happy.

This may be changing in the 21st century as the geeks gain recognition as people with great potential, especially as people who might make their fortune in the world of high technology. Geeks may be more socially accepted than in the past, but unless they receive more assistance with their social and emotional development, most are destined to be unhappy as they mature in the world of adults.

People with high intelligence, be they children or adults, still rank as social outsiders in most situations, including their skills to be good mates and parents.

Moreover, they tend to see more of the tragedy in the communites and countries they live in, and in the world, than the average person whose primary source of news and information is comedy shows on television. Tragedy is easier to find than compassion, even though compassion likely exists in greater proportion in most communities.

Bill Allin

'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to make the difficult problems easier to understand so someone can change the system.

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i think being more intelligent/educated makes people dislike you, because of jealously. if you come to my school, and see how they treat the ib kids, its pretty brutal, we get ridiculed at, joked at and verbally abused all the time because of the fact that we're in this hard program that prepares us for the future, but instead of giving up, we stick together, which builds a great deal of teamwork. But in general my IB friends, are cheerleaders, football players, basketball players, actors, officers, etc, and we don't have a problem with being unhappy. Maybe overworked, but never unhappy, we're actually quite an optimistic bunch. I just find it annoying when people make fun of us because of our lack of common sense, they expect us to know everything and when we say we don't know they just really take it to another level.

and when you think about it, the top 10 percent of high iq people in the us, are teachers, and they are extremely underpaid and given little to no respect.

but i guess many could argue that knowledge can be a curse because, well you know too much and that carefree element you had and curiosity as a child, just leaves and nothing seems to be right. Like they say, ignorance is bliss.

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I wouldn't fully agree with you. Its not exactly a rule. It depends on how do you show your intelligence? If you make other feel stupid and meaningless, it's probably that you end up alone...

Generally people at my school dislike IB students, as we are thought to be school elite , just because we have another way of studying and all these "magic" things like TOK or CAS. but personally I don't agree with that, I never thought about myself as somebody more special then the other.

Intelligence is connected with other treats, so if somebody is unhappy it's not only because of his intelligence. :lol:

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You would have to examine one and the same person (group of people) to say if it's true or not. At first person A is intelligent and e.g. unhappy, then taking account on the same circumstances, the same person A is unintelligent (or less intelligent) and check if person A is happy or not...

And it's rather impossible.

:lol:

The only thing I'm sure about the happiness is that it's surprising and not subject to any rules...

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What if being intelligent makes you happy? I mean that can be a possibility.

I suppose to people who got too intelligent wouldn't have maybe friends due to their lack of conversation ideas. I think if people don't have many friends they tend to be more unhappy.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't necessarily agree with the point. =\ I think if the person is optimistic and actually attempts to socialize they're bound to find other intelligent people with similar views whom they can befriend.

This reminds me of a "infomercial like" movie called The Secret. It's about how if you think and believe in something, the universe will make it come true. :D

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This reminds me of a "infomercial like" movie called The Secret. It's about how if you think and believe in something, the universe will make it come true. ;)

This reminds me of the one of the greatest writer ever - Paulo Coelho, who wrote that: ““When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.””

:worship:

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I don't think that intelligent people tend to be unhappy. Intelligence does not have that much to do with happiness. There can be unhappy and happy people that are intelligent or less intelligent.

One philosopher said (I think it was John Stuart Mill) that he would rather be a dissatisfied human than a satisfied pig. This would mean that intelligent people can achieve a higher happiness. It's not a good comparison. I'm not sure if you can compare pigs with "not so intelligent" people, but I hope you understand what I mean.

if you come to my school, and see how they treat the ib kids, its pretty brutal, we get ridiculed at, joked at and verbally abused all the time because of the fact that we're in this hard program that prepares us for the future, but instead of giving up, we stick together, which builds a great deal of teamwork. But in general my IB friends, are cheerleaders, football players, basketball players, actors, officers, etc, and we don't have a problem with being unhappy. Maybe overworked, but never unhappy, we're actually quite an optimistic bunch.

This is definitely true! Even though the IBer are kinda separated from the other students, I don't know anyone who has a problem with being unhappy!

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Guest Reaper490

Have to agree with this statement, as the old saying goes "Ignorance is bliss". Intelligent people tend to worry more, they also see problems before they, if ever, occur. Also intelligent people put much more pressure on themselves to succeed. Of course though that doesnt mean every intelligent person is unhappy :worship:

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Also intelligent people put much more pressure on themselves to succeed.

I think it's not a problem of intelligence, rather a personality and a surrounding where a person grew up.

Anyway, it's a serious issue. Sometimes I also fall in that point. I know many people who have very high ambitions, in fact there is nothing bad about it, but only minority of them can endure the failure.

People shouldn't make happiness dependent on their success.

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Well, at my school, IB students are looked upon with awe.

Basically, people say that we are the superior group in the school.

We NEVER get ridiculed.

However, lately since there has been corruption in our class, everyone is a little sketched out by IB.

One of the major issues as well with our class is that the people in it ACTUALLY think they are better than the rest of the school.

Which is where my recent unhappiness stems from.

Not due to "intelligence" but moreso because of what a rigorous program does to highlight the flaws of the people in my class.

And so, I am not unhappy because I myself am smart but I am unhappy because my class looks down upon everyone not in IB.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I don't think that intelligent people tend to be unhappy. Intelligence does not have that much to do with happiness. There can be unhappy and happy people that are intelligent or less intelligent.

One philosopher said (I think it was John Stuart Mill) that he would rather be a dissatisfied human than a satisfied pig. This would mean that intelligent people can achieve a higher happiness. It's not a good comparison. I'm not sure if you can compare pigs with "not so intelligent" people, but I hope you understand what I mean.

This is definitely true! Even though the IBer are kinda separated from the other students, I don't know anyone who has a problem with being unhappy!

I agree! The IB'ers at my school are considered geeks, hanging out in the library and speaking English all the time. We even consider ourselves geeks (in a somewhat self-ironic tone) and almost revel in our joint abnormalities. I guess what I'm trying to say is that being "abnormal"; in one end of the scale or the other, does not necessarily doom a person to misery if that person has other "freaks" around him/her. Majority decides what's normal; being different is much easier if you're not the only one.(at least I think so)

Happiness (and coffee) for all the people!

Love from the Tsarina (Trisha)

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I'm not sure about the IB thing...I think it depends on the school environment. Most of the poeple at my school don't really care if you're in IB or not: we pretty much intermingle all the time! However, I think that might be because we don't have any "actual" pre-Ib classes, so in grades 9 and 10 you get to meet everyone in your grade.

As for the intelligence...er...I'd have to agree that the more intelligent you are, the less happy you are. I think that when you have an extremely high intellectual capability it's extremely difficult to find people that understand you because you have the ability to comprehend things in a completely different way. It probably makes intellectuals a bit depressed that they're isolated for simply being the way they are.

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