To wonder if clever people are less likely to be happy....

[Comedycook]

Maybe clever is the wrong word? Perhaps analytical is a better word. I'm just musing. I think the more you think about life, the more crap it seems. I'm not actively unhappy but I wouldn't say I'm a hugely happy person. I think way too much. So for example, at a party or event, I find it hard to let loose. I can't switch off my analytical musings on what's going on around me and as a consequence, I don't have a huge amount of fun.

Maybe this isn't intelligence as such but over thinking/analysing

Anyone else like this?

I don't feel the same way but I agree with you it's probably over analysing and over thinking things rather than it being a 'clever' trait or intelligence related. I have a bit of a problem but in the opposite direction and accused sometimes of not thinking things through properly and just doing things that suit me and what I personally like.

What do you do to switch off?

i think so- you can see it in abundance with hen dos and baby showers. Why else do most of MN despise these events, because they analyse them. Thickos love these things.

There are things I enjoy but not in a letting loose sort of way...I love to sleep mainly!

I would say naturally clever people are analytical. That’s why I also say clever people can’t believe in god.

I agree with you OP. Ignorance is bliss, as they say

Eh? Thick’s love hen do’s ?! 😂😂😂

Thickos love hen dos....

😂
That is gold!

Ignorance is bliss. As I have grown older I think this is more and more true. People that are a bit thick, for any number of reasons, are happier and more accepting of things

Maybe you're just naturally antisocial? It's not a negative trait, just the way you are.

I totally agree.

Ignorance is bliss.

Yes OP agree. Over analysing leads me to existential crises about life and it’s pointlessness and then depression. Anti-Ds help to numb it a bit for me.

I tend to agree with you, OP. I think as you get older and have more experience of life the more you see that's wrong with it. Sometimes I wish I was back to being a naiive teenager when my world was quite small and all I had to think about was which Smash Hits poster to put on my wall. Not that I was thick. But I wasn't thinking about the wider world much.

DH and I have said before that it appears to be difficult to be very, very clever and also completely stable. We don't count ourselves in that category, but we went to Oxbridge and met people who were.

Yes, it is a well known philosophical theory, The Persuit of Happiness, theory.

I think it was John Locke. Basically, once you discover poetry, you no longer enjoy "pushpin" some old Vicorian game, once you enjoy "higher things/ideas", things please you less.

Hence "The Persuit of Happiness is an impossible Ideal"
...or something!

Oh interesting,. I'm not depressed. I just think life is objectively quite crap. I'd like to switch off a bit more and a be a whooper type at a party...but it's not me. Maybe it's why some people drink and take drugs? I don't drink alcohol and have never done drugs...

They say that something that makes you happy is something that makes you really concentrate and stops you overanalysing things. I think I'm going to buy a digital piano and go back to learning complicated pieces. When I was younger I spent hours doing that, stops you mulling things over and over in your head about stuff you cant change.

DD is very very bright but over thinks everything and suffers from anxiety.
Her brother is bright but not exceptionally so and he is so much more chilled out and happy than his sister
I do wonder if her life would be easier if she wasn’t as clever

Greta Thunberg must be eaten up with sadness. Wonder what she does to find happiness? She must go for a walk in nature and find things that are wrong.

@Comedycook im the same. I can’t relax in social situations at all, I’m constantly thinking about looking interested in the other person, and thinking about what to say next etc etc.

Im fine though when I’ve had a drink which definitely means I drink a bit more than I’d like, it’s the only time my brain relaxes a bit.

Not reading the media makes you happy.

Well YABU because constantly overthinking isn’t ‘clever’ or a sign of intelligence.

If anything those who are intelligent are often happier as they tend to earn more, have better lifestyles etc.

Or her life would be easier if she didn’t suffer with anxiety…

This!
I had an ex who was just completely blissfully ignorant of stuff going on. I couldn't cope living like that, but I did also feel that was the reason he was always pretty happy. Things like missing deadlines and just shrugging off the extra costs, etc. I think I'd be crap at my job though if I wasn't analytical so I guess it balances out a bit for me.

I would probably veer the other way. Clever or as you say it analytical people are probably more likely to be realistic and pragmatic with what life has to offer and as a result be happier with what is thrown at them.

There's one thing I'm certain of: most Mumsnetters are not people that could be categorised as 'clever'!