Smart/Stupid/Happy/Sad

[TurnyBright]

People have always commended me for being really "smart" or whatever and I always did really well on standardized tests and the SAT and such, but I don't believe that test-taking and fact-knowledge or even the ability to "comprehend" (abstracts, maths, philosophy, music) is the measure of intelligence.

The reason I think this way is that throughout my life I have never been striving to be "smarter" or "better" in any way. I've only ever tried to be happy. Interestingly, the only result of reasonable thought and rationalization of my world is depression, hopelessness and a bleak world view. In other words, when I utilize my powers of (god I hate this phrase) IQ to attempt to form a schema of my existence, the inevitable result is unhappiness.

With my rational mind and emotions so closely knit together, I wonder why my constant second-guessing and analysis of the world around me leads me to such disquieting ends. My peers never seemed wracked with fear or depression at the prospect of the ultimately unknowable or sinister enormity and eldritch squamous nature of that which is.

This evident negative correlation of intelligence and happiness leads me to wonder about the nature of smart and stupid. What separates the intelligent from the gormless? What is intelligence?

My personal belief? He who is "stupid" and happy is the one who has truly transcended this mortal coil. The final result of the search for wisdom will be the abandonment of intellectual pursuit in favor of emotional leads. He who is "smart" is the real stupid one.

TurnyBright Reviewed by TurnyBright on 06-14-2008. Smart/Stupid/Happy/Sad People have always commended me for being really "smart" or whatever and I always did really well on standardized tests and the SAT and such, but I don't believe that test-taking and fact-knowledge or even the ability to "comprehend" (abstracts, maths, philosophy, music) is the measure of intelligence. The reason I think this way is that throughout my life I have never been striving to be "smarter" or "better" in any way. I've only ever tried to be happy. Interestingly, the only result of Rating: 5

[bhouncy]

People have always commended me for being really "smart" or whatever and I always did really well on standardized tests and the SAT and such, but I don't believe that test-taking and fact-knowledge or even the ability to "comprehend" (abstracts, maths, philosophy, music) is the measure of intelligence.

The reason I think this way is that throughout my life I have never been striving to be "smarter" or "better" in any way. I've only ever tried to be happy. Interestingly, the only result of reasonable thought and rationalization of my world is depression, hopelessness and a bleak world view. In other words, when I utilize my powers of (god I hate this phrase) IQ to attempt to form a schema of my existence, the inevitable result is unhappiness.

With my rational mind and emotions so closely knit together, I wonder why my constant second-guessing and analysis of the world around me leads me to such disquieting ends. My peers never seemed wracked with fear or depression at the prospect of the ultimately unknowable or sinister enormity and eldritch squamous nature of that which is.

This evident negative correlation of intelligence and happiness leads me to wonder about the nature of smart and stupid. What separates the intelligent from the gormless? What is intelligence?

My personal belief? He who is "stupid" and happy is the one who has truly transcended this mortal coil. The final result of the search for wisdom will be the abandonment of intellectual pursuit in favor of emotional leads. He who is "smart" is the real stupid one.

Intelligence is already defined by the dictionary and has nothing to do with happiness. In this world there aren't many people who are 100% content and happy. From my experience with people the ones who have a deep connection with a God or other spiritual beliefs seem to be the happiest.

[Coelho]

Well... your post is really a nice one, and ill have to think a bit to give it an appropriate reply... anyway, the relation between intelligence (or wisdom) and sadness is known since long ago...

"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." Ecclesiastes 1:18.

[bhouncy]

"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." Ecclesiastes 1:18.

That's me fucked then!

[Coelho]

My personal belief? He who is "stupid" and happy is the one who has truly transcended this mortal coil. The final result of the search for wisdom will be the abandonment of intellectual pursuit in favor of emotional leads. He who is "smart" is the real stupid one.

Well... in my humble opinion, its an unwise belief. We humans have (at least) four ways to percieve and interact with the world. From the most primitive to the most evolved, they are:

Physical sensation
Emotions
Thoughts
Spiritual insight

When we are born, all we know are the physical sensations. The comfort of our moms lap, the pleasure of eating, etc... when we grow up a bit, we start to percieve and feel emotions. Little children has so much emotion... years later, we start to think thoughts. And only after decades, only some few people attains spiritual insight.

So, i think the sadness of the pure intellect comes from the fact that being "stuck" in the intellect (thoughts) level is a barrier to our evolution.
Think about people who are only moved by emotions, without rational thinking to moderate it. There are scores of persons like this. And their lifes may seem interesting to us, but they are leaves in the wind. Without the intellect to moderate their emotions, they just go from heaven to hell almost instantly, under the influence of their emotions. And i would never think that being like this is better than being a rational person.

BUT, it also works for the intellect. People who are only intellect, only thoughts, without spirituality to give meaning or scope to their thoughts, become immersed in the mazes of the reason, and easily are drawn to the dark side of the life, which is easily spotted by anoyne given to thinking.

So, i must agree with Bhouncy who said that the most happy people are the ones who have a strong spirituality. Cause its the level where all our potentialities as human are developed, where we are at the most evolved level, and are living to our fullest capacities.

[NaughtyDreadz]

ignorance is bliss....

[TurnyBright]

So, i think the sadness of the pure intellect comes from the fact that being "stuck" in the intellect (thoughts) level is a barrier to our evolution.
Think about people who are only moved by emotions, without rational thinking to moderate it. There are scores of persons like this. And their lifes may seem interesting to us, but they are leaves in the wind. Without the intellect to moderate their emotions, they just go from heaven to hell almost instantly, under the influence of their emotions. And i would never think that being like this is better than being a rational person.

The anachronistic thing about stupidity is it's tendency to induce unnecessary complications (of mind and circumstance). This evidence that rational thought is "better" glares obvious all the time, like when you need to do your taxes or work through relationship issues.

However, I still feel left in the dark as to the nature of the smart/stupid. The dictionary defines "intelligence" as "capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc." and gives no insight as to the reason for the difference in this capacity among individuals. In contrast to bhouncy's belief, I feel that this "capacity" is integral to the level of happiness and the very meaning of what happiness is to a person.

Well... in my humble opinion, its an unwise belief. We humans have (at least) four ways to percieve and interact with the world. From the most primitive to the most evolved, they are:

Physical sensation
Emotions
Thoughts
Spiritual insight

When we are born, all we know are the physical sensations. The comfort of our moms lap, the pleasure of eating, etc... when we grow up a bit, we start to percieve and feel emotions. Little children has so much emotion... years later, we start to think thoughts. And only after decades, only some few people attains spiritual insight.

I don't get how you can back up what you're saying here. How can you know that newborn babies don't experience emotions or thoughts? The pleasure of eating is both a physical sensation and an emotion that you attach to that sensation. It also would logically require the phenomenon of thought to be cognizant of the food and your mouth and taste buds and your own existence (you have to know you exist to know you want to eat food in the first place). The very act of recognizing one's own role as a perceiving ego is spiritual insight, and it is the most basic foundation of all the other modes of perception. Perhaps not everyone realizes the strangeness and significance of the fact that inside this weird lumpy tall hairy organic system there is a seemingly magical thing that perceives (and orders and thinks about and essentially creates) all these things that surround and affect the wet, soft, strangely shaped things that are our physical bodies.

[psychocat]

Intelligence is vague at best.
Try defining levels of intelligence and you have to quantify something that cannot be measured.
The need for information is based around your situation , a surgeon can save your life but he may be useless if you need knowledge of plumbing or nuclear reactors.
To me happiness is fulfilled desire and lack of fear, if I have both then I'm happy.

[TurnyBright]

sometimes fear makes me happy

[psychocat]

sometimes fear makes me happy

That isn't so much the fear as the adrenaline , I'm an adrenaline junkie so to me fear also has different meanings.