The Author appears to be fixated on the concept that the intellectual’s downfall is his or her habit of running away from pain. Unfortunately, for the highly intelligent, whether he or she is running away from pain or not, what he or she fundamentally lacks, is fixed, simple, concrete values. The more simple a person is, the more likely they are to “borrow” values and concepts, such as “happiness”, or the pursuit of wealth. Of course, such values values become more elaborate the more somebody knows, or thinks, but the less than highly intelligent person is still likely to live much of their lives according to what they have been taught, what their peers consider to be “right” or “good”. Unfortunately, borrowing values becomes harder as one peels away the layers of reality. The genius is left with the burden of creating their own values, their own reasons for living, and once one is faced with the reality of this infinite choice, the whole idea of values becomes utterly absurd. This is a lonely process when one is surrounded by people that have no advice or understanding to offer because they live in a simple and unambiguous universe filled with borrowed concepts and rigid boxes with which to evaluate every occurrence.

In short, I agree with the Author’s advice. Running away from pain is one of the silliest habits of the intellectual. Intelligent people have the facilities to deal with pain, whether by solving problems logically or by lowering their expectations and accepting the hand that life has dealt them. I don’t agree however that learning to deal with pain is the key to happiness for the over-intelligent person. I don’t agree with the idea that happiness should be the goal of the over-intelligent person because any intelligent person understands that happiness is a construct. The main obstacle that prevents the know-it-all from reaching his own, or any society imposed goal, is not pain, but confusion. Someone who knows too much simply has too many choices, too many questions to seek answers to and no simple, concrete reasons to pursue any sort of success in life. The person who knows too much doesn’t really know what success is, yet. The life of the intellectual is an existential bachelor in rocket science, while the rest of society is studying arts, or attending community college. The subject matter is just much more advanced for some people, and they may spend their whole lives trying to derive meaning from the void and never find it. My advice to the author is to stick to what they know and let geniuses be geniuses. Its likely that you haven’t even begun to touch upon what they comprehend.

Since I started smoking marijuana, I’ve noticed I’ve developed a thin veil of haziness over my life. It leaves me in a slight cloud that gets me through the monotony. I usually smoke 1 joint per week. This amount is not enough to affect my ability to sustain myself. I still earn a living, pay the bills, and feed and cloth my kids. In fact I’m doing much better at my dreary, dead-end job now that i can cope with the hours of drudgery.

I’ve given up looking for a new position. I know full well that there are no ‘great jobs’, or ‘exciting careers in…’. In a world of more than 6 billion, every job is a dead end job. I know that it is all just a marketing ploy by the colleges, universities, and workopolises of the world. There is no adventure left in this world. By emptying my head of thought, I’ve emptied my inbox of useless job search spam.

I’ve lowered my own standards to that of my colleagues and associates. I’ve let go of my pain and anguish towards the world and given up. The world doesn’t care about me so why should I care about it? I’m going with flow and my life is happier because of it.

My spelling may suffer, but who cares? I still have spell check.

However, EQ, or any measure of TOTAL MENTAL ABILITY in my opinion directly controls our happiness.

Most peopel only consider IQ which merely is a measure of our brains learning and memory capacity. However, IQ alone
although has a strong influence on , does not determine our total mental capability. I believe EQ (emotional quotient)however is a better measure of mental health and ability.

There are many people with very high IQ’s but with various mental deficiencies such as low self confidence, obsessive behaviors, bipolar personalities and so on. Many of these people are in mental hospitals. These people are very unhappy.

To summarize, I think IQ alone does not warrant happiness but mental health does.

As you rightly pointed out, moral awareness can bring us great joy, along with the great sadness of seeing so many people reject the potential of man. I am an existentialist, and I have waded through cycles of cynical depression over the futility of life then great joy over the experience of it. I think that what is good is not “being simple” but in “living simply” — according to pared-down ethical concepts that we apply consistently, and the ability to find happiness in life’s small pleasures, and be awed by the magnificence of our universe. Perhaps that is what people refer to with SIBs. Perhaps too many intellectuals forget how best to achieve la dolce vita?

You have a narrow mind. Striking, for an intellectual but not entirely unexpected in a world that promotes such seclusion among intelligences. How could you know? You were busy studying with your college prep pals while the ballers and the losers “simply go on.”

Choke on a fat Christmas turkey. What about the rest? Would you, too, spit them like pesky water melon seeds? Maybe we don’t see much. Maybe not even enough to understand our predicament. But isn’t that sad? People who don’t see need to be shown. Stop yapping about intelligence not being a burden and start helping. The SIB’s already understand that intelligence can, in fact, enable someone to soar. The majority of people do not need that lesson. They live it. Maybe, if you helped someone who cannot see as much as you can, then you’d be happy.

Okay, one quick question I’d like answered. Didn’t that stare you blatantly in the face when you wrote, “it’s my/your brains that make me/you unhappy”? Look closely at the words beyond the slashes. Why would someone tell you that it’s your brain making you unhappy? Did you talk to an SIB? I bet he would resent that term, though I doubt you used it in conversation, and I’d go all-in to say that person felt jealous. Maybe you don’t see enough. Somo los mismos. I’m certainly not a genius, but even I can see that.

Does that answer you?