Do you enjoy your job?

[dragoneggs]

Barely related, but i was thinking about this today and this seems like a good enough excuse to bring it up...

Think of the most joyful person you know. Is that an exceptionally intelligent person?

Now think of the most intelligent person you know. Is that an exceptionally joyful person?

In my experience it seems that the more intelligent a person is, the less likely they are to be a happy person, and vise versa. Am I alone in that observation?

P.s. that's not to say a genius can't be happy and an idiot can't be unhappy, but you know just in general.

Quite the deep subject to dive into. Personally, I don't think there is much of a correlation between happiness and intelligence. I do believe intelligent people tend to be more driven than the norm and this can be interpreted as unhappiness from a certain point of view. And don't get me wrong... 'driven' is not the same as hard work. Lots of not so intelligent people become successful through hard work... whether they are happy or not. And conversely, many intelligent people don't become successful just because of their efforts.

I do think that the more you think you know... the easier it can be to be disappointed or unhappy with others if they are not providing the stimulus they enjoy. Others that may not be as intelligent, might also be frustrated or unhappy with 'smart' people because they just aren't relating... no fault all around.

Happiness is a very personal thing. How one expresses it... is another.

 

[strantor]

My observations of people over the last 64 years don稚 support that conclusion at all.

Most of the really smart people I know are the happiest.

Your observations scream "Ignorance is bliss." :laughing:

Intelligence has nothing to do with joy.

Well I guess I need to reset the observation counter and break the confirmation bias, reevaluate and come to new conclusions. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[strantor]

Some always happy people often have positions with routine and non supervisor position in my limited experience... Like the parking lot attendant downtown for decades... so many knew him because he left that impression at first meeting.

Very few powerful people I've come in contact with would I call happy...

Then again some religious seem almost infectious when I think about it.

Not sure if job satisfaction makes one happy or if happy people generally like their job?

Maybe I'm mistaking un/intelligence as the linking factor with un/happiness. Maybe you're closer to the truth with hierarchical position. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

 

[GeneV]

There was a documentary on netflix a bit ago, I think it might have been called "the happiness index" or something close to that. They showed a upper middle class American dude, lives in the burbs, big house and lawn and all that. He gets up early, drives an hr through traffic to work, comes home late. They ask him "Are you happy?", and he's like ehhh, I'm ok I guess.

Then they cut to India, this dude gets up early and runs a rickshaw all day...literally all day, being the pulling animal for a cab. He comes home to a tin shack with a dirt floor, his meal being a bowl of rice. They ask him "Are you happy?", and he's like "YES!" He goes on to explain how he gets to come home to his kids and a steaming bowl of tasty rice, and now he gets to chill the rest of the evening with his family. He's like "life is good". Well there you go.

 

[MossRoad]

You know what else makes you more happy?

Less stress.

(he says "Thanks Captain Obvious")

 

[2LaneCruzer]

You know what else makes you more happy?

Less stress.

(he says "Thanks Captain Obvious")

"Be happy in your work". It's all a matter of perspective, right?

 

[k0ua]

"Be happy in your work". It's all a matter of perspective, right?

Sure. And Arbeit Macht Frei right?


Arbeit macht frei - Wikipedia

 

[k0ua]

The only freedom the folks that walked under that sign ever got was the freedom of death.

 

[MossRoad]

"Be happy in your work". It's all a matter of perspective, right?

Sure, sometimes we are forced into situations that are beyond our control. But for the most part, the people that participate on this board apparently have the ability to make choices (and plenty-o-freetime, too).

 

[two_bit_score]

Well I guess I need to reset the observation counter and break the confirmation bias, reevaluate and come to new conclusions. Thanks for the feedback.

Depends on your frame of reference how you view it.

I have a friend who is genius level, Mensa and all of that. He is a successful medical malpractice trial lawyer in Houston. We have been friends since the 1980’s. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was always curious about things. Mechanical things, medical things, politics, etc. Every new thing that came out he wanted one. Before he was a lawyer he was a Physician’s Assistant. Even after becoming a busy, successful lawyer he continued to practice as a PA because he could continue to learn so many things.

I notice that all the really smart people I know are very curious about things and are constantly wanting to learn more. They are very seldom judgmental about anything until they have really looked into it.


.