Smasharoo wrote:
I used to think the same way until I started to grow out of my (relatively mild) Aspergers Smiley: lol There are actually plenty of very intelligent, happy, well-adjusted people.
No, there are plenty of *reasonably intelligent" happy, well-adjusted people. It's not at all the same. People in the 98th percentile of intelligence accomplish a lot, live happy lives and are recognized as bright by their peers and families. People in the 99.9th percentile of intelligence live tormented lives, kill themselves at a rate around 20 times higher than the general population and are recognized as "different" and "difficult" by their peers.
Not something I made up out of hubris or emo attention seeking, it's a known phenomenon. People generally associate with those who near to them in intelligence, when there are fewer and fewer of those people in the world, socialization becomes more difficult. Not that you can't learn to fake it to get laid, it's easy, but really, how would your social life be impacted if you really only had anything in common with people who had the same first and middle name as you. How many of them would you meet if you didn't go out of your way to find them?
This is demonstrably wrong. The 98th percentile puts you in MENSA, which is not difficult to get into. 1/50 people are eligible. My brother is in MENSA, for example. He's very intelligent. Relative to a genius? No, but still very intelligent. But your point is taken that these people aren't exactly geniuses.
However, there are a number of other organizations that only accept people at higher percentiles, including people in the 99.9th percentile of intelligence. These people are not all living tortured, tormented lives. Many of them are socially well-adjusted and doing just fine. Yeah, there are tortured geniuses... usually those who can't adapt to the lunacy of our societal norms and expectations, but others find ways to cope with it and carry on.
I have -never- met someone I considered to be my intellectual equal (you're welcome to think that's hubris; I've learned not to care). e.g., I trounce the MENSA people I know in games of strategy. I was virtually a recluse for seven years just because I couldn't tolerate other people. It wasn't that I didn't know or understand social conventions--I was just miserably frustrated being around normal people. Every time they would open their mouths, the words that came out would bore me at best, and often make me cringe inside. I became a complete misanthrope. I described it the same as you--like I was surrounded by little children. But I learned to be fine with the solitude. And then I started to grow out of it, and found a wonderful, very intelligent partner who appreciates the way I am. I learned to accept and ignore the world's problems and live my life according to my own meaning.
There's nothing to inherently make a genius unhappy. Intelligence can be used as a tool to thrive in solitude, or it can be used to find a niche for your life that involves others. Are you statistically more likely to be unhappy? Yes. But you also have one of the greatest tools in the world for overcoming long odds.