Why smart people are unhappy
After I wrote the wildly popular post Why Smart People Fail, I received several interesting responses, some in the comments section and others privately through the contact form on this website. One example was the comment that presented two very valid questions, one of which was “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you happy?” Later, I asked a coworker of mine to read the article and tell me what she thought about it. Ultimately, she felt it was lacking. It was lacking something to her because she is familiar with the periodic unhappiness that I feel while at my work, in my cubicle, my hell, my dungeon. 
In what I felt was a sarcastic question, she referenced my mention of the phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” and asked, “so how’s that working out for you?” Ouch. My response ultimately was, “actually, I’d say pretty well.” I went on to illustrate the many successes I have had at my work and in my life. I told her how, while in Rome, and while doing as the Romans do, I was building up my resources and kicking some Roman ass. We eventually embarked on an e-mail exchange that maintained the “Roman” theme, an analogy I found so useful then, that I’ll use it here too.The analogy goes something like this: smart people fail because they forget they are in Rome. In order to succeed, they have to come to grips with where they’re at. The “Romans” in this analogy are all the many “common” people that surround the smart people. So are smart people, acting as Romans so they can succeed like Romans, happy? Not always and here’s why:
They are extremely bored
Smart people in a Roman world are more than likely only practicing a fraction of their talents. The things Romans do are really quite simple: work, play, sleep, eat, poop. Wake up and repeat. And for Romans, these are fun! But, as I said in the other article, smart people are puzzle-solvers. They like a challenge. They get bored when they are not challenged, and because the vast majority of careers out there are “production based” (do task a, then task b, etc.), their jobs are quickly mastered by smart people and are only challenging during that learning phase. After they learn the job they’re in, they’re done. Out. Finished. Bored. In the Roman world though, under normal circumstances, once a Roman job is learned, that means it’s time for a promotion. The problem is that the Roman world operates much more slowly than smart peoples’ learning capacity. There is often a very long delay between when a smart person learns the Roman job and when he can advance to the next, more challenging job. During that delay, smart people are left wandering around bored out of their minds.
They feel stuck
A lot of smart people out there in the Roman world are only in the Roman world because they need to eat. In other words, they need the frickin’ money. So, they work away, day in and day out and after a long enough period of time, it occurs to them that they might never get to leave. They make just enough money to survive and the slow pace of promotion gives them the dawning sensation that they might end up doing the same thing they are now every day until they die. With prospects like that, it’s no wonder smart people can be unhappy.
They comprehend the futility of their situations
This one’s my personal favorite. Smart people have greater comprehension skills. They tend to connect the dots both better and more into the future than typical Romans do. For a smart person, doing the same thing each and every day just so they can get a paycheck, just so they can buy some stuff eventually seems almost laughable. Live to work to live. What? That’s it? Scary. But ask a Roman about it and they’ll smile with satisfaction and naively say, “Yep, that’s what we Romans do!” Smart people though, just aren’t wired that way. They’re problem solvers not problem-perpetuaters. They like to fix things not keep them broken.
They are lonely
A lot of smart people look around them and only see Romans. Because they don’t have enough in common with the Romans to really enjoy the gladiator fights and Christian sacrifices going on at the local coliseum, they end up being loners half the time. Their down time is spent either begrudgingly in the presence of tolerable Romans or simply in the absence of anyone at all.
They have no exit strategy
They miss their fatherland. They work in Rome so they can eat but cannot leave. So smart people wander around the streets of Rome pretending to be Roman but because they don’t have many options, they stay in Rome forever, unhappily. They let themselves become Roman. They spend just enough time in their Roman labors that they never figure out an escape route.
The optimistic answer to all of these
Good god man! Get out of Rome! Or at least, as a starting point, figure out once and for all that the reason you’re not very happy, is because you’re simply not a Roman. If doing all the things that makes everyone else around you feel peachy-keen makes you feel sick all the time, it’s probably a good indication that you’re just not genetically a freakin’ Roman. Find some things to do outside of your Roman duties that are challenging and stimulating, recognize that the Roman way is the futile way, plan your escape and find some friends. It’s ok to walk around the Romans and secretly know deep down “I’m just not like you.” You don’t have to be like your coworkers, you just have to act like it for a while. Then once you find what you really love, pack your bags and leave.
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Yeah! werk sux because I am too smart!
Lucky for me, I can watch Oprah at work so I can connect with other smartlings…
Thank you for putting into words how I feel all the time.
I’m also lazy, but that pretty much sums it up. I stopped socializing with people a few years ago, I just never had anything to contribute to any of the conversations. I didn’t care about what they were talking about. Now I spend a lot of time wondering why I continue to exist. I don’t believe in god, heaven, or hell, so why not just kill myself?
This is really awesome. Like Ryan said, I have felt like this for a long time.
I have abnormally large ankles.
3. Geoff
You need Rumsfield poetry.
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.
Discover the unknowns.
5. Mel. So what? Health problems? See a doctor.
Sometimes I go without wearing pants just to shake things up a bit.
Geoff: The reason you want to kill yourself is because you have no purpose in life. That’s a hard one to get out from under.
The thing is, ultimately EVERYTHING is futile, because you’re just going to die in the end anyway, and everything wonderful you and your fellow humans did will now be useless to you.
And so, knowing that the Grand Prize is a load of bullshit, you can either cash out to avoid the pain of disappointment, or opt for the boobie prize: Live new experiences.
The boobie prize is not constructive in the traditional sense, but doing new things helps give you a new perspective. That perspective can lead to a challenge, which can lead to a passion, which is fulfilling for the time that you are passionate about it (remember: nothing is permanent).
Have you ever walked through the farmlands in Laos? They’re really quite beautiful, and the people are friendly, and drink this nasty alcohol that puts hair on your chest so thick you flog yourself to death when the wind blows.
Trust me: though the ultimate purpose doesn’t exist, you can carve out a purpose of your own. You just have to get off your ass and do something un-Roman.
WOW! There are a lot of smart people checking out this blog. Do you folks know that in reality, you’re probably just totally average - just like me? Truly smart people march to the beat of their own drummer. Truly smart people do not sit in cubicles working for other people while thinking about how “smart” they are. Truly smart people do not reply with stupid comments to stupid blogs. Face it. You are average - just like me. Live with it.
Thanks for articulating the realities many of us face.
The social withdrawal aspects are particularly nasty as the isolation it produces is both a salvation and a curse. The very people I would love to hook-up with are probably holed-up somewhere like I am, doing their best to insulate themselves from the vapid and disingenuous social nightmare that surrounds us.
Average Joe: I’d hardly call an IQ of 140 “average”.
Wolter: Ahahaha, an IQ of 140 is more common than you think.
You can’t really claim alienation based on a supposed measure of intelligence until you’re in the ‘genius’ range, which 140 sure ain’t.
Really? I certainly feel alienated.
I certainly can’t live on the same level as the rest of my coworkers. All they’re interested in is sports, who’s fucking who, the price of gas, and some superficial tidbits about the political race (mostly to do with the awful things one side said about the other).
You can’t hold a conversation with those kinds of people about quantum physics, Nietzsche, geopolitics, astronomy, or any other cool stuff.
Mention that Socrates and Plato were not great thinkers, but rather misguided idealists, and you are rewarded with a blank stare.
You cannot bond successfully with others unless you can reach a common ground, and common ground there ain’t.
BTW, common != average
Wage slavery fucking sucks.
I wrote this about it 2 years ago:
http://technutnews.com/2006/08/10/shorter-4-6-hour-workdays-would-benefit-us-all/
As a successful person and member of Mensa with a 173 IQ…I relate completely with this article. I should also add that an IQ score by no means measures how smart a person is, or has any bearing on their current performance level. The old saying “You can lead a horse to water” applies.
BTW…average IQ is 118, not 140…140 is considered gifted and only 6% of all tested ranked this high. Hence 140 is not common, it is exceptional.
> You can’t hold a conversation with those kinds of people about quantum physics, Nietzsche, geopolitics, astronomy, or any other cool stuff.
Mention that Socrates and Plato were not great thinkers, but rather misguided idealists, and you are rewarded with a blank stare.
You cannot bond successfully with others unless you can reach a common ground, and common ground there ain’t.
I’d say your problem isn’t one of intelligence, it’s one of humility.
I understand what Dereck and many of the comm enters are expressing - let me add my name to the list of people who find it difficult to carry on the kind of mindless inane conversations that many people have BUT I completely disagree with the focus of many of these comments and even the post itself.
In my opinion “Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t do.” Sounds stupid I know but I believe it with all of my heart. You may be born “smart” - you may be born with a high iq or an exceptional emotional intelligence or some incredible gift that makes it easy for you to do something that everyone finds difficult. That in and of itself doesn’t make you a success. Of course we all agree on this.
My concern is (I don’t know any of you people so why am I concerned) that what is being proposed here is a world view that says “I am special (Why? Because I feel special and I am ’smart’) and the rest of the world are a bunch of idiots. I can’t wait to escape these idiots.”
The problem is unless you are all planning on establishing some utopian ’smart people’ colony somewhere you are always going to be surrounded by “those people.” Do you really mean to tell me that with all your intelligence you can’t figure out a way do enjoy yourself with “those people?”
At the end of the day you are not the sum of your words or thoughts - you are the sum of your deeds. If you steal stuff - you are a thief. If you have extra-marital affairs - you are an adulterer. If you succeed - you are sucessful and if you live your life like everyone else - you are average just like them.
Sure, some people have abilities others don’t have but at the end of the day we don’t consider the dead poor, mensa-level iq alcoholic bum on the street a success and the lower-than-average iq schmuck who worked his ass of and amassed a fortune a bum.
I was VERY encouraged by the first couple of posts I read here - I thought “wow, someone who can clearly articulate the struggles that anyone who is determined to be a success has.” and that is exactly what posts like the “Shut up and listen” post focussed on: the fact that YOU are your own worst enemy in your quest to succeed. Unfortunately it seems to be turning down the road that says “you poor smart, talented person - you are so persecuted in this world. those ignorant fools out there. one day you can leave them all behind. in the meantime be miserable and try to make yourself feel better by increasing the amount that you hate and despise those stupid normal people.”
I hope I am wrong - I hope this blog ends up taking the road it started down first.
oh and by the way - smart people are unhappy for the same reason stupid people are unhappy: because they CHOOSE to be.
If you disagree with that statement than you just endorsed a world view where you have no control over your own life or emotions and are at the mercy of whatever powers govern the universe. good luck with that - I’ll be over here working on deter ming my way to happiness
@ veritas - I am still composing a reply to your e-mail. Expect it by the weekend at the latest… Hang in there
The issue is not one of creating some utopian society (as if such a thing were even possible), nor is it a sense of powerlessness.
It is rather an extreme frustration at having to work with apes that *just* *don’t* *get it*, no matter how many times you explain, no matter how much they’re screwing the whole thing up, no matter how much pain they’re causing for everyone down the road.
You can see *quite clearly* that they’re doing it way wrong, and yet nobody understands you when you explain why, even when you demonstrate the better way.
Have a look at the movie “Idiocracy” for a demonstration of this.
If you lived in a colony of retards (say, IQ 60-70), how much would you enjoy going out with them for some fun? Sure, you CAN enjoy yourself, but it does get tedious after awhile, and you will find yourself wishing for someone who can talk about movies TV sitcoms and the hockey pool and gossip that goes beyond “hehe… him dum dum!”
Now slide that scale up a bit, and you have a similar situation (though likely not as extreme), where the things the other people do simply don’t interest you enough to do day-in, day-out. And most of the things that you find interesting and stimulating are beyond them.
Of course, the solution is to find more people like yourself. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the maximum IQ spread before you simply don’t connect is around 20 or so, but I can’t for the life of me find the publication.
Being surrounded at all times by people you can’t connect with is basically a form of isolation. Is it any wonder that it breeds unhappiness?
Wolter: Judging “smarts” by IQ is like judging a book by its cover. An IQ is nothing but a litmus. The last IQ test I took I scored a 138, so WOW, you’re 2 points smarter than me! WHOO HOO for you! But the questions are mundane questions that you’ve been taught to remember. They’re never questions that truly challenge your inner workings. As far as I’m concerned, IQ tests are written by other “smarties” who think they’re smarter than they really are. Drop 10 city-slickers in the middle of the wilderness and see who survives the longest. That’s a much better test than a silly IQ that only determines if you’ve remembered how to calculate the volume of a cone.
Joe, I’m not talking about IQ; I’m talking about intelligence, and used IQ as a marker of intelligence differential because everyone understands it to be an indicator of cognitive ability, whether that assessment be correct or not.
Regardless of IQ’s ability to actually measure intelligence, the central theme to my earlier statement remains, and you are simply muddying the water with irrelevant arguments.
Wolter -
again I struggle between two positions here because on one hand I know exactly what you are describing. I know what it is like to feel frustrated and isolated because the fact that - for whatever reason - you are able to see to the root of a matter naturally leads you to prioritize and value things differently.
At the same time I think much of what is being debated in this thread is not actually debatable because we are mixing a couple of very different goals in our discussion. Part of this discussion is talking about being successful, living and achieving, being challenged by what you do. Another part of this conversation is aimed at being happy and enjoying life.
These are two very, very different things at times. Yes, it is possible to enjoy what you do, challenge yourself, meet your potential AND be happy and enjoy life. Unfortunately most of us have nothing but poor examples on either opposite extreme: on one the individual who throws themself into work and achievement but sacrifices happiness along the way and then, 20 years later looks back and realizes that nothign they accomplished actually meant anything because it was never enough and in the process they missed out on the love of friends and family and other lasting activities.
On the other hand you have the vast majority of the population who sacrifices their talents and abilities and trades them in for the security of a 3% a year cost of living adjustment. Never challenging themselves they try best they can to enjoy their family - they constantly grasp at objects - new cars, boats, tvs - to make themselves feel better and then 20 years later they look back and realize that they wussed out. that they could have accomplished so much more but because of their fear they refused to take the chances necessary.
Every day of my life is a struggle to reject either extreme. I want to have my cake and eat it to - I want to continue to enjoy the love and happiness my family brings me while living a life that reflects an undying determination to find and hopefully surpass my potential.
But that’s just it. The battle is against MYSELF not other people. How many times have I failed and taken the easier path because I was lazy or afraid of failing? How many times have I wasted my talents and abilities? How dare I look at anyone else and think to myself “man i am so much better than that ape of a human being. what a bafoon, man i am glad i am intelligent enough to see that the things that make him happy or stupid, vain, empty, meaningless things.”
We are all nothing more than the sum of our actions. Saying that we are more intelligent that “those apes” or waiving around results from some test means absolutely nothing until it is backed by an action.
The world owes us nothing - we can huddle together and roll our eyes at the idiocy of the masses if we like but it won’t get us one step closer to achieving our own potential.
Dereck -
appreciate it - I don’t ever want anything I am expressing to come across as though I feel you owe me or anyone else any kind of explanation. This is your space to express your thoughts and if those expressions do not match the things that I am striving to do it is my responsibility to move on - not yours to change.
All the same - I appreciate you taking the time to thoughtfully reply.
Interesting subject. No time to think about it enough right now but will come around again and see where it goes. Thanks for sharing Bing.
I can certainly empathise with this article and a lot of the comments. I’ll just contribute my own thoughts, not trying to tell anyone else how they should think.
I was touched by the message about how everything is pointless because nothing is permanent. Intellectually, one can easily work that out. But also intellectually, one can work out that intellect is not the sum total of human existence. We non-Romans are still human beings, just ones who think much faster and with greater intuitive depth.
I guess this is me redefining the word “success” as predicted in the first article about failure. But since we’re here experiencing life, the life we experience is the perspective from which we assess the myriad goals we are told we should want to aspire to by vulgar society. In that respect, of course “we” are going to have different goals and seem to fail when viewed through the popular lens.
I think there is a good case to be made for eradicating this concept of “should”. We impose it upon ourselves and it leads to feelings of guilt and inadequacy since extreme intelligence is often accompanied by extreme self-doubt. I am my own harshest critic by far.
Before this gets too long, however, I’d like to zip to the one thing I really wanted to say.
I do believe in God and the continuation of life after death. Not for any lightweight reasons either. I was an out-and-out skeptic and cynic for many years and this desperate sense of unfairness at a universe that creates me, makes me aware I am going to die and then kills me off with my memory and awareness dissipating into the eternal void really took hold and turned me into a bit of a pain in the proverbial.
Then my father died and I fell unemployed from my stimulating but badly-paid teaching job. I determined to work out the meaning of life by putting all my panicky energy into this quest full-time. I thought that the very least I could do in this life was to give the ultimate question a stab. A really serious and dedicated stab.
I spent 18 months obsessing and using my preternatural concentration to assimilate as much info as I could and let it bubble away in my subconscious which deals with more inspirational thoughts that are not necessarily all mapped out entirely rationally. Creative thinking, as it were. Is creativity a valid template for appraising the experience of life? Yes of course since everything I experience is filtered through my own consciousness and therefore everything exists inside my own head.
And what I found was that the more I read about quantum physics the less solid and externally independent the world around me became. Everything became relative, interdependent and even insubstantial. There was also the crossover from this advanced theorising into less celebrated disciplines like parapsychological studies. But all they turned out to be was people researching effects of the mind. Seemed valid enough to me as long as they had a rigourous methodology. And the good ones do.
This all seemed fascinating and a good use of my “downtime” (though of course I would argue that there is nothing more worthy of spending time on than working out why we exist), and the answers regularly danced tantalisingly close to the tip of my tongue. I began to dream of these questions and continue thinking about them whilst asleep.
Then one day something happened, the right circumstances came together, I heard one thought on the radio about what existence is about and that began an unfolding of the whole thing in my mind. Parapsychologists call is an Out of Body Experience.
And as sure and as rationally as I am sitting here typing, my consciousness did indeed leave my body. And my questioning mind continued to analyse everything during the process. That was what convicned me it was real. I was not being led along a story like a dream and I didn’t fall asleep and then start lucid dreaming. This was: awake-oh look at that swirly pattern in the sky, that can’t be real-oh I understand about that part of existence now-wow I’m rising out my chair and passing through my ceiling…etc.
(Extremely) long story short, I met other awarenesses whilst I was out and talked to them, then felt this “at oneness” with the whole universe. I saw the sheer scale of it all. There is no way to do any of that justice here, poets and artists for all human history have been trying to encapsulate what this inner sense of magnificence is, where it comes from and what it means to us scraping an existence on this planet.
It sounds a bit weird I know, but well I was so sure everything was mundane and solid and rational and boring and pointless, I guess only something like that was ever going to change my mind.
Most of you will no doubt conclude that I refused to accept the reality of the impermanence of life and in my trauma invented a trip in my mind out of some kind of psychosis to reassure me that life and learning go on for all eternity, well beyond one human lifetime. You may indeed be right, that is one plausible explanation.
But all I would say to bring this back to the realm of some sort of verifiability is that if you really delve into QM and the reputable parapsychologists who perform proper studies at university then there really is a valid and rational case to argue that things we now consider to be superstition and impossible are simply natural functions of this universal system we only rarely come across.
The key is the state of mind. And the only way to be convinced is to try and see for yourself. I think this is a very laudable interest intelligent people can research in tandem with whatever more Romanesque pursuit they have to play along with to survive in this material world. I certainly have found nothing more worthy of my attention.
Hope some of this was useful or at least interesting.
Hope and Love
Happy Tree :o)
A lot of people are commenting on how they think their IQ is too high for everyone else. IQ is relative. Maybe their social IQ is a low 80.
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know”
– Ernest Hemingway
Life can be substantially different as based in a matter of perspective. Find passion in life, whether its in something current or move along to something else.
The only problem with this is that discovery in and of itself ends up becoming the passion…
Still searching.
Just a quick note on IQ.
As far as I am aware, there are actually multiple standards for determining IQ.
Depending on the standard, an IQ of 140 in the USA may not be the same as the 140 IQ of some in the EU as each standard has a different mean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ
I think it is valid to think that people writing the comments to this blog mean generally smart people, both intellectually and socially, when talking about high IQ and not numbercrunchers who can’t dress themselves.
No wonder, a cubicle job.. that has got to be one of the worst options out there.
Anyway, if you are smart, you may have figured out how come with 5000 in the account, you still “cannot afford” a night out costing €70. Ie its all about income, not liquidity.
Thus you should end up with some rather nice savings, as roman spending habits just dont matter.. brittney spears cd? Bah, ill get bach for a tenth the price and 20 times better!
Liquidity is only spent on large scale goods, not every day spending.
Savings ultimately allow for a simpler life, once a home is owned, you can cut costs significantly. Same with travel, be that a 10yo car, buspass or bicycle. Theres plenty of nice lil simple recipies out there, giving highly nutritious food (sole purpose to eat). Funny thing is, best foods rarely cost more than €2/day.
This ultimately allows for a significantly lower income, and thus less slavery to rome. Heck, start flipping burgers on weekends as a offtime job, working say another day or two in the office or with something else granting perhaps another €500 -> €1000/month.
You could be surprised at the number of misplaced geniuses at McD
Which brings us to the center of it all, yourself. Yes, a lot more time with your own miserable you. If you cannot stand yourself, you are best of as a roman. But if you can.. well, one lil trick ive discovered: grow muscles. No not like a overgrown ahnold, just rock hard all over, bulging a bit here and there.
Then start sweating, and eating your daily 1,5g of protein per kg of bodymass.
http://hundredpushups.com/ is a good start.
That will improve your life greatly. A healthy mind can only dwell in a healthy body. Think about that
As for life being pointless, really..
) is fun, and even better when the both of you are toned and fit. Better yet, you can be blessed with a little one.. to whom you can teach all kinds of things, play with etc.
The ultimate aim for any organism is to perpetuate itself. Sex, ive heard (
Then give him or her a sibling
Since ultimately down history, noone cares if you had a big house or lots of money.. even whether or not you had read 2000 books, what does matter is offspring. Surviving ones, that is.
Oh yes, and then we have the definition of the free man.. from rome and beyond: Owning a horse and a weapon. Horse obviously is any way to travel (pretty much = car), and weapon is a gun in these days.
With freedom and health, and a stable if humble income and the little ones. Oh and all the time to enjoy this, and voila, you are free of the roman lifestyle.
They pretty much will resent you for this, think you are insane of whatever. You should be above all that.
Finally, a list of prequisite characteristics needed to develop your inner self, taken from dear Herr Steiner:
* Control over one’s own thinking
* Control over one’s will
* Composure
* Positivity
* Impartiality
Two first demands a rejection of THEIR values. Next, is coming to peace with yourself. Impartiality comes from understanding the pointlessness of lies and the first two.. questioning and rejecting the imposed roman values. Positivity, well, being healthy helps as does redirecting your expectations of life. Perhaps a bit of a childs mind helps, view life from a little childs point of view sometimes
And perhaps you can rediscover life. Maybe.
Oh yeah.. and dont watch tv ever again. Its so full of lies, brainwashing (no matter how aware you are, it seeps thru), case in point: “motherfucker”, should be a awfully outrageously rude word.. but you likely dont mind as much as say with the in real terms less obnoxious, “I smear myself in dog shit and eat it too!”, why? You have been conditioned that way.
as for average or not iq, remember that a lot of tests pander to the egoes of wannabe smarts. Ive found tests where the result need to be divided by 1,2 or 1,4 even.
One test did give a accurate one, and lots of people mortally hurt with their iq 89 results, having imagined their whole lives they had an iq of 115.
Sorry, no link.
This i believe is the sole accurate test on a test, see if you can by answering in a stupid fashion get below 80. If you cannot, the test is fatally flawed.
The lowest should be 30-40, by answering everything wrong.
That said, tests have handed me everything from 128 to 189.
Oh and the occasional 70-105 (bah!), when ive tested the tests.
Equality, or the notion thereof, is the worst bane out there.
Have a look at what the declaration really says tho
Few if any sites on the net carry it, you have to go there in person to read.. to realize how much you have been lied to.
Thank you for writing the article.
@ Vero - You’re welcome…
If you’re truly intelligent, you’re never bored. You realize that “happiness” isn’t a constant but moments.
If you’re truly intelligent, you know how to have fun.
If you’re truly intelligent, you do good works.
If you’re truly intelligent, you see wonder all around you.
What would you say to a smart person who has given up, devotes all their time to drinking and doesn’t know how to quit?
Smart people that are ‘creatives’ have few of the problems mentioned above. They are busy trying to stay alive by creating things from nothing.
Happiness, veritas and Teotw, you three have just given one reader some new reasons to try and carry on. Thank you! I was just about to give up myself.
Don’t you guys realize that the level of communication in this thread far exceeds that of places common people hang out, like youtube and myspace?
The quality of these comments does in fact show that everyone in here is above average intelligence, and you don’t need an IQ test or any other subjective test to show that.
What you’ve said is so true.
It’s interesting to see people like yourself recognizing this dynamic in this modern age, again. In the 1800s and early 1900s, such models like this were discussed by “the elite.” And you can see how this kind of proposition would really grate on the ears of 90% of people (those you call “romans”). They consider it to be simply a declaration by aristocrats that they are superior to the rest of folks. In that manner, “common” became a perjorative term; but it was not originally meant to be a derogatory term.
The thing is, that if deep thinking folks don’t see this truism which you laid out here clearly, they are going to be really foolish in how they approach life. One key point you mention here, is that moment when these thinkers realize that they would rather engage their minds than be working in a boring job. That means smart people tend to drop out of mainstream society; and they will even choose to live hand to mouth, just working enough to get by in whatever odd jobs they can find, to help them keep their head above water; they’ll try to get themselves on welfare, or on social security disability payments. Money is not the thing they are zealous about. They want their time for their own endeavors. Money and time are both resources which can be spent. And whereas most folks value the things they can spend their money on - deep thinkers profoundly value the things that they spend their time on.
There are some other things which cause smart people to often get dejected and unhappy. One interesting effect, is that even though they see themselves as living up to the highest standards - when it comes to how they converse, and how they act socially… the “Romans” actually more often than not scorn these smart people who are always talking in terms of outside-the-box perspectives and premises. We have to recognize this as well. Philosophical thinkers are scorned, because they part ways with the prevalent consensuses of their society in so many ways; they assess every issue from an independent perspective. One old story which provided an avenue to discuss and muse about this effect was Plato’s “allegory of the cave.”
One interesting effect which I wrote about last week on my weblog, is that it’s often the case that smart people will also be nurturing people. Because they have thought things through enough - they understand how social trends come into existence, and move and affect people in small and large groups; these folks will seek to focus almost entirely on encouraging these trends when they are around others. So, where we could divide the world up into “smart folks” and “Romans,” or “deep thinkers” and “shallow thinkers” - it might be more instructive to see the division between “nurturers” and “posturers.” I believe that smart people need to focus intently on hooking up with those who are nurturers. And indeed, I think that if you see a smart person who is expecially bitter - something is oddly incongruous in that situation, and one would be wise to give that situation some healthy berth, as you puzzle out what’s happening. Dedicating your life to consoling Eyeore is going to end up being just as vain a pursuit as working a dead end job.
The weblog post I wrote last week about posturers and nurturers is here.
And there is another very fascinating post I discovered on the same tangent about posturing and role playing, which was written by Dave Pollard.
So, I agree with you that smart people should “get out of Rome.” What that means, is that they have to build social networks with folks who do respect them, and their ideas… and who understand their rhythms of life, and who will forgive their weaknesses.
There’s a portuguese poet and writer called Fernando Pessoa, an intellectual himself, a writer something like the Shakespeare of the portuguese language. He was a very intelligent and tormented man, frequently depressed, who wrote once that knowledge and intelligence are traps that will void people from being truly happy. For him, happiness lies on simple things and people with intelligence will ever question simple things as they were not enough to fullfil happiness.
I always thoughted like that but as time passes I try to admire the simple things and see their trully value.
Hi there,
Read your article and was a bit uneased by it.
It’s not so much the “them” against “us”… it’s more about framing… Because I think you got it wrong.
“Romans” at the end of the day, gave what they had to give. Thus their satisfaction. “We” who have receive “more”… we have to give “more”. When we feel uneased by all this, it’s “simply” because we are not doing what we are meant to. Not in our place. Not doing what is “required” of us. Unhappy, simply because we are not giving as much as our internal measure asks us of.
Go out and shine!