Intelligent People tend to be Unhappy

[the destroyer]

i agree in some parts, but happiness is really more about state of mind. at my school, a lot of the most popular kids are in ap and ib classes. and in the ib classes, its the dumb ones who are the outcasts. while ignorance may be bliss, smart people can still make fun of dumb people and chances are they wont even know their being mocked ( :

[Darren]

Intelligent people are picked on. Really intelligent people aren't, not only do they know who they need to be when and where, they're not afraid to...which makes all the difference.

1up^

[ameatypie]

Firstly, intellegence - at least in the way IQ defines intellegence - is all well and good, and it is my belief it is not that in particular making people unhappy. However, intellegent people have a tendancy to be somewhat anti-social, predominantly because they lack the social skills required to interact with other humans easily and enjoyably. Of course, there are expections to this, but I personally believe that statement to be fairly accurate.

Secondly, I do not really agree with how IQ levels define intellegence - IQ covers only academic intellegence, it does not really cover social, emotional or even insticntive intellegence. And sometimes, being soically or emotionally intellegent is signifigantly more important than being academically intellegent.

[Daedalus]

I think this is an unnecessary and unjust accusation. The philosopher in me says, intelligent people should be more happy then others: they can understand the world around them better. They have a wealth of books to read, and there are just so many ideas out there. Ignorance is bliss, perhaps, but trust me when I say that in many situations the intelligent people have it easy. I know people who struggle daily with certain tasks, and when you see somebody effortlessly grasp something that you wrestle with for hours until you realize that you're simply stupid... I mean the knowledge of being fundamentally incapable is far, far worse than being cynical and blase.

I've met my share of cynics and things and yes, they tend to be smart, but at the same time the happiest and most successful people - in the emotional, in the academic, in the social walks of life - tend to be intelligent ones too. I think the argument that IQ and EQ are completely separate things is false. A higher IQ gives you the potential to develop a better EQ - what you do with it is up to you. But just think for a moment what it means to be a really sociable person who doesn't understand things, like movies, books, etc.

I think on the whole things balance out. The only real way to find out is to poll people, and again, what insurance do you have that the bias cancels out? What if smart people tend to rank themselves less happy then they really are? At the heart of all these things is the false idea that happiness is comparable. It's not. You simply can't complain the well-being of a decadent man from a wealthy family and a student living on welfare studying for 8 years for medicine. It's not that it's hard to find the answer to who is happier and who isn't, it's simply that happiness is a human construct, and it's false. In all tangible, real ways it doesn't exist. Pleasure exists, and pleasure is derived from a lot of sources - love, sugary foods, adrenaline rushes, masturbation, whatever you want - these things are chemical - but the quantity and quality of pleasure in life cannot be equated with happiness. You can't artificially add all the good things in a life and subtract the weight of a dead parent. It doesn't work that way.

[Tessa92]

I agree

Firstly because of previous arguments mentiones and secondly because I can prove these correct

My older brother has an IQ of 139 and his marks were bad.. weird much? well .. he was tring to underrate his intelligence and didnt want people to realize.. he was embarressed and was worried about what people would think.

However, he made himself even more unhappy because he was not being himself and at some point got lost in his own life, without even knowing who he actually is. This went on for years until we as his family brought him to make an exchange to mexico, where he could have a fresh start, as him, and not as someone who he pretendet to be.

worked out well and he scored in his IB 41

[Daedalus]

I agree

Firstly because of previous arguments mentiones and secondly because I can prove these correct

My older brother has an IQ of 139 and his marks were bad.. weird much? well .. he was tring to underrate his intelligence and didnt want people to realize.. he was embarressed and was worried about what people would think.

However, he made himself even more unhappy because he was not being himself and at some point got lost in his own life, without even knowing who he actually is. This went on for years until we as his family brought him to make an exchange to mexico, where he could have a fresh start, as him, and not as someone who he pretendet to be.

worked out well and he scored in his IB 41

Are you suggesting that your brother is representative of all intelligent people?

[RBST]

I somehow agree with Tessa92. The scary thing about intelligence is that people think that they are hard workers aka (geeks/nerds) although they are usually not. And we- as students know how this affects social life, which is a very important part of our lives at the stage.

[ivanthegiant]

most definatly. as Lisa simpson said "I made a Chart!"

[Austin Glau]

most definatly. as Lisa simpson said "I made a Chart!"

I would have to agree

I find it wierd but freakishly true that this happens.

[Bishup]

I have heard that some people with extremely high IQs, round 180, a fraction of those people are extremely depressed when they live the normal everyday life most people live. They live in another dimension, for their brains to be stimulated they need to realise incredible things like invent new theories and bask in a world of scientific genius. But it general I'd say Intelligent and Less Intelligent people are just as happy as a whole since they are both still human and enjoy the same things even though the lesser intelligent people's world is limited.

[kingdomx]

I have to disagree, I know some intelligent people, and they love to get all the attention, because in my school they are looked up to as role models, and everyone totally loves them. Geek is like the new cool.

[Windstorm G-man]

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!

Oh man, you guys go to some really bad schools.

Narrabundah is full of at least decently intelligent kids, the IB students are mostly respected and considered ballsy; often you will find us jokingly tease the normal students!

After reading some of these other people's perspectives, man I'm glad I go here...

Anyway, I think it will always truly depend on the person and the company they keep. General statements about intelligent peoples such as Hemingway's are often hard to find truth in, for it is the group of intelligent minds that tend to be the most varied and hard to classify.

[sorcham]

I think that often intelligent people are depressed because they feel dissatisfied with the lives they live, as they simply aren't stimulating enough. But I think it's really the same with anyone, if you're fulfilled enough socially, through goals, use your mind well and have your mind in a good state, you're bound to be happy. I think some intelligent people just have HIGHER expectations then less intelligent people. I think that intelligent people are unhappier than normal people a lot of the time, because they'll continue to question and analyse (which is a good thing really) life, and I think that when you really think about the bleakness of life and the matrix society is caught in, of 1.EDUCATION 2.WORK/MARRIAGE/FAMILY 3.DIE, the whole concept becomes pretty depressing when they linger on it too much. Often many great intelligent people are criticised, which is wearing after a while.

Also, referring to what a lot of people have said in this thread.

I've never really understood how people seem to link IB with some sought of segregation and being bullied... at lunch time about 11/12 people i sit with are VCE students. Sure, sometimes my friends comment on me being "an IB freak" jokingly, but then i call them "VCE peasants" and we all love eachother. I thought that if anything, being in IB has made me MORE popular, i still have all my old best friends from VCE, but now i have IB best friends as well. In IB it's like we are a big happy family, but then in VCE i still have the friends i've always had.

[solastalgia]

It's like Daisy Buchanan says (and this is very paraphrased): "If I want anything for my daughter, it's for her to be a fool. A beautiful, little fool. It's the best thing anyone can be in this world."

Of course, it's taken out of context and written incorrectly, but I'm too busy doing Biology work to get out my Great Gatsby book for English.

Edited September 30, 2010 by solastalgia

[777Ash777]

Who ever started this topic.

It is like saying, all rich people are depressed. And all poor are happy, and neither of them are like each other (in a sense, just with the assumption that the poor are the opposite of rich.)

- what does intelligence have anything to do with happiness, I suggest there is no correlation to it (generally)...

Perhaps if we look at the subject on a more contextual basis, or actually on a metaphorical basis:

Unintelligent people view life in for example on a 2 dimensional scale. They are more easily satisfied with the little things in life, as they don't have the capacity or intellectual foresight or third-eye ---> that which intelligence brings people into seeing things on a more deeper, meaningful level --- some could argue happiness to being on all the scales mentioned in the former and later part of what I am saying.

Intelligent people view life in for example a 2-5 dimensional scale. Those in the lower scales see things still in 2D, but make connections with deeper levels of thought and are less ignorant of things happening in life. whilst those in the higher scales can see things in more depth, are able to perceive, and understand things to a greater extent more clearly and more frequently than those people of lower intelligence.

But what defines intelligence. The IQ test, i'd without a doubt defines a degree of intelligence..... however, what about, as like what may have been said before, reflex/memory/perception/creativity/personality/...surely there are a lot more things that must be considered for someone to be said to being intelligent?

- Take a Quarterback or whatever sports star, or idk ----> yes, A boxer! usually they are intellectually well below par in contrast to a for example scientist or whatever. But there are skills in their sports that require them to act, move plan and coordinate- their bodies and minds in such a way that (requires intelligence associated with the persons sport) which is why the scientist is a scientist and a Boxer or sports star is a sports star. It can be arguable that the sports star is more intelligent in his/her sports (through neurological connections) than what the scientist is. and Vice versa.

Are dyslexic people less intelligent than people who don't have similar brain connections (said problems)?

How can it even be said or assumed, that now having completed the IB (some of you) would agree to the title of this topic?

A$H

[Reality ninja]

Here's what I think, for the sake of this disscussion let's assume that "intelligent" takes on the traditionnal deep thinker meaning, as was described in many of the examples. I myself can identify with this statement, often when left to my own devices without any dirstractions I will drift into a ToK style train of thought. While this isn't necessarily bad it does tend to pile up. As a result often times I have alot on my mind, not leaving much room for happieness.

On top of that, Godel's incompleteness theorem states that math and by extension physics, biology and indeed most other branches of science will remain incomplete forever. This also affects philosophy since explaining the observable world in terms of measurable quantities and subjective observations go (arguably) hand in hand(if you want to debate on this point let's do it somewhere else). If you devote your life to learining how things work then the idea that your life's work may never come to fruition can weigh particularily heavily on you.Some people may have problems accepting this, leading to more stress and unhappieness. This problem could be much worse for those with few social outlets to distract them(my friends are one of the few influences that can distract me from my own thoughts).

I just know some psychologist put that better than I did so if anyone cares to expand/correct/refute my idea feel free to do so.(not that you needed my permission)