HAS YOUR INTELLIGENCE TURNED AGAINST YOU?

My boss, in one of the multi-national companies I used to work with was very sharp intellectually. So, when I joined that organization, I used to admire her, but slowly and slowly my admiration turned into irritation. Her habits of sulking, spewing negative comments, scoffing were getting to me! But later, I started to feel bad for her too. That is because she looked unhappy almost always. I don’t think she ever found anything good to say about any of her peers or team members. Everyone was below her level of intellect and most were downright stupid. It was getting tough to manage her near-perfect expectations and it was then that I decided to research a bit more. After a just a couple of days, I stumbled upon something that explained it all. Would love to hear from others how they feel.

Some of the most intellectual and high IQ level people who think deeply most of the time generally fail to be happy. These people may have the most beautiful homes, loads of wealth and drop dead gorgeous or handsome partner, but there is something within them that makes them alone, sad, incomplete and unhappy.

Let me first start by asking you if you have come across the Dunning-Kruger Effect? No! then you must read this. This rules states that the incompetent ones are usually the most confident, while the intelligent souls are forever doubting their own capabilities. In simpler terms, the dumb could be so dumb that they are unable to fathom their level of incompetence. On the reverse side, the intelligent ones are so smart that they know how much they don’t know. It is because of these reasons that we in our lives see that the stupid ones are confident, arrogant and brash and the intelligent are full of distrust and doubts over their own selves.  Either way, people on either side of the spectrum, the highly intelligent ones or the ones with low IQ, both haven’t a clue about their own limits of capabilities.

Few reasons why this may be a true phenomenon are as follows:

Over- Analysis: Intelligent people over-analyse everything that they can’t solve in their minds. This can be draining sometimes especially when their thinking process takes them to unfavourable conclusions. Like my boss always thought that his peers did not like him and neither did his boss, so he would be asked to leave or quit the company any day.

Yes, that made him feel unwanted and hence unhappy! Most of the two-people associations we have a purpose for either sides. If someone talks to you and does business with you, they have a motive for doing so. The faster we accept this the better it is for all. However, being able to read and worry about people’s true selves and hidden motives almost always, is enough to make you feel disappointed with the whole world sometimes. This kind of a phenomenon depletes people.

Isn’t that why people sometimes say, ” Ignorance is bliss”?

Idealistic Views: Intelligent and smart people many numbers of times have very idealistic views of the world, and these are horribly far away from reality. Their idealistic views make them demand a lot, infact perfection, from life and they absolutely detest the idea of stelling for anything less. So, when their expectations of perfection or “a lot” merge into harsh reality, they are usually in for a rude shock. They start to feel dissatisfied and depressed with their successes, Achievements, relationships, and small wins. 

It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that they chase their own happiness away.

Get bored easily: Intelligent people forever look for such mentally stimulation pass times of projects that they fail to the fun, beauty and benefit in the simpler things. So next time, if you pick up a paper to solve sudoku instead of playing ludo, think twice, because you may not be smiling or laughing that day!

Are overly strict: Intellectuals are so tough and unforgiving about their own selves that it seems that they genuinely and deliberately seeking out things for which they can blame themselves. Almost like they get sadistic pleasure out of blaming themselves.

If nothing else, they are capable of unearthing year-old problems out of their graves and kicking themselves for the mistakes they made then. Ofcourse they start to feel faulty, guilty, discontented and pathetic about the whole thing. Yes, one more tool to chase happiness away.

Crave for eternal and abnormal interpretations: During other times, they would connect a daily chore to the eternal or something out of this world. It is tough for them to enjoy simple basic pleasure or fun activities. Craving for such eternal or spiritualistic experiences in almost everything becomes a norm and obviously they don’t find this as often as they want to, hence starts the journey of embracing detachment, aloofness and loneliness.

Inability to be understood by others: One of the happiest and most satisfying moments in life is when you can sit and chat about interesting subject with like-minded people. The feeling of being understood and appreciated is amazing. However, intelligent people can usually never experience such pleasures. This is because they don’t feel understood most of the times. Such people usually are not able to hold conversations with people having average intelligence levels and hence discussions on travel, food, things to do during the weekend are subjects under the taboo list. Sometimes this gets aggravated by the fact that others have very high expectations from intelligent people and living upto their expectations puts so much pressure that these people tend to crumble or break. Feelings such as loneliness and sadness are bound to creep in.

While there could be intelligent people who suffer from mental disorders, those who don’t are still prone to depression, which often is a result of excessive thinking. Perpetual thoughtful states and over and in-depth analysis of everything makes the intellectuals reflect on existence its meaning and its purpose.

Happiness Bye Bye!