Toot…

I’ve been wondering if there’s any correlation between intelligence and happiness. I guess I have been thinking about it since I watched an episode The Simpsons:

A crayon was found stuck in Homer’s brain, of which was removed later. It turned out that the crayon was the cause of the Homer’s undeniable stupidity. Homer’s life changed after that. The upside was that he became very intelligent, could solve Rubik’s Cube in mere 2 moves. The down side was that he became very critical in his thinking and pointed out other people’s mistakes. His friends resented it, and soon he became lonely and sad. Lisa pointed out that there is an inverse relationship between intelligence and happiness. Feeling that there was no reason to be intelligent if he was unhappy all the time, Homer chose to have the crayon inserted back in his brain…

I think how well you are doing compared to the people around you, or in another word, self-worth is an important factor of happiness. Take for instance if you earn $2000 a month while your peers earn $5000 a month, it is very likely that you will be haunted by the thought that you are not as competent as your peers. In a dog-eat-dog world, I think intelligence is an important factor affecting one’s promotion, career, earning power, and hence indirectly, to one’s self-worth. Compare the previous case a person who earns $5000 while his peers earns $2000 a month. I suspect that the chances are, the person in the latter case would be happier. In this sense, I think more intelligence leads to happier life.

Having said this, I think intelligent people like to analyse things. Intelligence, I think, has a lot to do with one’s ability analyse causality and anticipating the future. There must be a lot of intelligent people in this world, but not all succeed in what they do. For those who failed, analysing the causes of their failures is their nature. I shouldn’t have said that; I shouldn’t have done that; I shouldn’t have invest on that; I should have acted faster… These statements would have haunted them after their failure. It is good that one can analyse one’s cause of failure and never does the same mistakes again. But some people may dwell on their failure and feel miserable about it. It doesn’t help when one knows the failure could have been avoided if not for one’s action or inaction. Maybe intelligence leads to an unhappier life.

I believe intelligence has a a lot to do with one’s learning ability. An intelligent person, I presume, would be able to understand a concept or a theory more readily and quickly than a less intelligent person. I think this has to do with an intelligent person’s ability to see patterns, and the relationship between separate incidences, concepts or knowledge. This grants one the ability to detect and identify problem, and formulate solutions quickly. I guess the obvious benefits comes from the satisfaction with ones own ability in solving problems, as well as the feeling of superiority to their peers. In this aspect, I have to say that intelligence is a factor for a happier life.

I think it is possible and likely that intelligent people have interests which requires thinking. Intelligent people enjoy thinking and challenging their thinking skill. I think science would be a common interest. Intelligent people doesn’t like to be told fact; they want to know why as well. They like to have conversations which causes one to ponder and to wonder. Questioning established knowledge, beliefs and dogma can be common. I think, it is entirely possible that some people simply do not like their questioning. Most people just do not have the same interests they do. Most people just do not like to have conversations which require too much thinking. I think, some intelligent people may feel lonely, and can depressed at times.

What say you? Do you think there is a correlation between intelligence and happiness? Is the relationship direct, or inverse? Ignorance is bliss, some say. Maybe it’s better not to be intelligent?