Superior intelligence is so overrated

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Let's try to understand your statement. I think to first issue here is to understand the term "happiness". what does the term means? Basically a state of your mind, which seen as something to archive.

Intelligence can help to understand how to archive this state. If you look into the writings of Epicurus how he describes to enter this state by analysing your real needs. Owning some villas does not guaranty happiness, external attributes which must be interpreted by your mind of getting happiness. Understanding the way to archive happiness is an intellectual process.

Having a high intelligence enables you to gain pleasure from items (e.g. studies) which are closed for the less intelligent people, but it does not close down the paths of gaining happiness via the other ways (food, drink, etc.).

Nothing leads automatically to happiness (except the brutal manipulation with drugs - legal and illegal), but having some intelligence opens up more ways of understanding and archiving happiness.

Again, that’s the NT way of seeing intelligence. As someone on the spectrum my intelligence often only activates when it's directed towards an area of extreme interest and focus. This makes it hard to use as a tool. My intellectual pursuits are my hobbies. Practical life matters don't generate enough interest for me to apply my intellect.

You can call this laziness all you want but it's the way my brain works and I've learned that trying to fight it only induces exhaustion and misery. My intellectual pursuits only bear fruit when I can derive pleasure from them. To have a tolerable life I need to do whatever makes me happiest, not what has the most likelihood of bringing social success. Unfortunately for me these two are often at odds.

Last edited by marshall on 14 Feb 2009, 1:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

It is something to need to learn - to enjoy things for your own. It hard for me to find anyone how thinks that taking about the influence of Peace of Rijkswijk in international law is anyway interesting, neither this was the case with previous obsessions of mine. so learned to enjoy this issues for my own, which is sometime hard and even harder to understand that the most people do not give a s**t on this and get very bored after 10 minutes of my talk.

The smarter you are at something, the dumber everyone else is at that same thing.

i mean yeah. if you knew everything what would be the point of being alive? i'd be a little bored if i knew everything. actuallly i'd walk around sighing all the time feeling depressed

Actually it gets you all that and much more. It earns you respect. People are finally realizing it pays to be more intelligent. Parents are buying up the Baby Mozart and reading to their embryos.
Intelligent people want to be friends with others like themselves, so, there's no problem finding people with whom to play chess, which is the game of higher intelligence.
It can get you the best job. It can earn you a PhD, too. People with PhDs are more qualified for higher salaried management and supervisory positions than those with a mere Bachelor's.
It can lead to happiness once you have the respect, the honors, the salary and everything else that makes life easier, like being in management and one of the "bosses" who gets to make important decisions and not an underling whose fate is precarious.
If someone gave me a choice between possessing average intelligence or genius I would choose genius without hesitation. The smarter you are the easier your life.

Just to point out, Baby Mozart is one thing if you buy it for babies who like to listen to it, but to have a baby listen to it to increase IQ? Studies show that listening to classical music as a baby does increase IQ by like a point or two. Nothing major. What really increases IQ, according to these studies (and I so wish I remember where I read this to quote it), is to learn to play a musical instrument. Notice how it's almost expected for band geeks to be smart? Anyway, I'm not sure if the study can show a cause and effect because it's possible that smarter kids just prefer to play a musical instrument. Anyway, I assume an intelligent person would play music the baby likes, especially if it soothes a crying baby.

I don't mean to argue with everything you said, but I kinda totally disagree with you on it.

Chess is not a game of higher intelligence. It's a game of strategy.

Also, you don't have to be smart to get a PhD, obviously. Doesn't Dr. Phil have one? Hardwork and money gets you a PhD. And "bosses" that make important decisions, in this economy, fate is also precarious. It's also a lot more competitive and comes with many more expectations. Even with a PhD, people still hire more based on "who they like" as opposed to "what they know."

Life is not easier the smarter you are. Sometimes, people benefit from being smart, but it's not like the greatest thing in the world. It's often more a curse than a benefit. I'm not saying I wish I weren't smart, but I'm saying it's not all that. It doesn't matter who you are or how much you know on something, you will still have to work hard and have the right people skills to go somewhere in life, and that means more than intelligence (not that I agree with it, but it seems that way). Happiness is a state of mind, so I wouldn't understand why one would think something like intelligence or money or anything would get them happiness. To add, wisdom will get you much further than intelligence.

Reminds me of Goerthe's Faust. In the play, Faust is incredibly intelligent, and old, and very bored with his life as a result. That's what sparks his interest in summoning evil spirits where he gets "Mephistopheles" and embarks on a journey of sin. But, God and Mephistopheles had a bet since the beginning (which many PhD's in the field will say that it is based on the story of Job when this bet is the only real thing I see in common from the two stories, so not to bright a comparison if you ask me). Anyway, Faust was so bored that Mephistopheles had a hard time finding a sin he was even interested in. Finally, what did it was lust for a girl half Faust's age (even younger it sounded). I will say though I do agree, lust is a very good cure to boredom.

The bad part is, most people do believe that superior intelligence is important. I get it all the time: "Hey, you are so intelligent, you sure will be able to get a job/go to college/live independently/etc." The thing is, the skills I am lacking for this, are not related to intelligence at all. If all it took to go to college, get a job and live independently is the ability to memorize academic information, of course it would work out, But that's not how it works.

Quite disagree with this..If you're intelligent,ofcourse people will stick to you especially during math class

I'm one of few aspies who doesnt really care about being intelligent. Isnt intelligence in itself something that can never be truly defined? Least that's how I feel.

...I mean, I'm sure we all wish that we could be smart. I guess I'm bitter about being demeaned and called stupid most of my life.

Yes I believe that intelligence is important but it shouldnt reign supreme over everything.

And I believe that there is no such thing as a person who doesnt want to learn. I think the people who say that have been getting so much pressure and junk by a society that pushes education and intellect on us waaaay too much. But education/learning is different for everyone. We dont have to learn or know everything but I believe that EVERYONE is interested in learning at least about something. Learning is just a natural thing like emotions...so who's to say who is smart and who is dumb?

Eh I guess that's just me talking

Look what happened to this guy http://www.prometheussociety.org/articl ... iders.html

Was Sidis an aspie?

So far intelligence hasn't helped me get laid, but it definitely helped me get a (good) job and it can make me happy in some ways.
While the Mundanes might be happy just by watching shiny objects and watching Idle American, I'm happy when I'm LOLing at all the stupid things that dumb people do or say.

Allowing others to be intelligent, is superior.

I'll not give up my intelligence for anything. Intelligent job are the only one I really like to do, doing something intelligent make me happy. Intelligence make you sad if you want to force yourself in the average people. Being "intelligent", doing scientific job having some very smart friends and a smart wife make me happy.

Intelligence doesn't make you happy and it's not needed to be happy but you CAN be happy and intelligent. The main problem I see is that expecially when you are young you'll feel isolated so you are not happy and the same can hold in adult age but there are other people who can share your interests and make you happy. There is a big difference between 2 different kind of happyness:

- you are happy because you are innocent like a child and "don't care"
- you are happy because you know the sin of the world, the bad, the worst and STILL your "intelligent" mind will see the beauty of our planet.

It's the difference between sensual/friendly love and cosmic love.

QFT