200 years have passed since the Russian classic Alexander Griboyedov wrote the cult play "Woe from Wit", and the problem expressed in this title of the work is much more acute. What makes a modern person with high intelligence feel much more unhappy than his less developed fellows in reason?
Constantly comparing yourself to others
When we say "smart people" or "stupid people", we primarily mean such a value as the intelligence quotient or IQ.
When we talk about IQ above 100, then first of all we are talking about a person's ability to think analytically, which, in turn, gives rise to critical thinking. This means that a person with a higher intelligence is inclined not only to constantly evaluate himself, but to evaluate himself in comparison with other people. Accordingly, there will always be people (especially around an intelligent person) whose intelligence level has yet to grow. Of course, this fact makes a smart person more unhappy (like every person - the fact that someone is better than you).
Increased self-criticism
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Analytical thinking generates in people with high intelligence a critical assessment of not only their mental abilities, but also their appearance. A smart person not only considers other people (which is typical of gossip gossip gossips with low intelligence), but also draws certain conclusions about the figure, proportionality, trendiness, dressing ability, lack of taste, etc.
Naturally, a person with high intelligence realizes that something is imperfect in him (haircut, quality of clothing, hair texture, figure, etc.). But even a very smart person is not always able to achieve perfection in matters of figure and appearance overnight. And this, of course, makes him an order of magnitude less happy.
Lack of joy from being content with only little
Probably, in any country in the world there is a category of people with high intelligence who are underestimated by society and the employer.
If a person with low intelligence is completely satisfied or half satisfied with a low-paid job in a government structure and he only has enough kitchen grumbling about being underestimated (because deep down he understands that he does not deserve more), then an intelligent person always understands. that he is underestimated, that with his capabilities and intellectual potential he could earn much more. The money factor makes a smart person less happy.
Striving for individualism
Since humanity in the vast majority lives within the framework of a patriarchal system of values (be it Muslim countries, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, or even Japan, where women come to work in hair curlers to please their husbands after work in the evening not only with a freshly prepared dinner, but also with a wonderful hairdo), an unfavorable environment is created for the existence of a person with high intelligence. A person with average and low intelligence feels quite comfortable within the framework of the patriarchal system, since the comfort zone of such a person is determined by such concepts as familiarity, routine, immutability and inviolability of traditions and existence according to the principle of “being like everyone else”.
When a person develops his IQ to high levels, he comes to the understanding that a patriarchal society is digestible only for people with IQ 100 and below. The higher the intellect, the less inclined a person is to a family-tribal way of life. An intelligent person is more prone to individualism. Individualism is incompatible with the patriarchal system of values and family-clan structure, which leads to external conflicts (with other people) and internal (depressive state), which makes a person with a highly developed intellect unhappy.
Constant sadness due to one's own mortality
The confrontation between individualism, patriarchality and family and tribal structure creates the following problem for people with high intelligence. The fact is that in a tribal society, different age stages of a person are always perceived positively, since within the framework of a patriarchal society, a person's mortality must be compensated for by the joy of the fact that he “will find a continuation in his children”.
As for a person with a tendency towards individualism and high intelligence (it does not matter whether he is childfree or not), the thought of the finitude of his own life cannot cause him to be neutral. Nothing can brighten up the awareness of the fact of his mortality in a person with high intelligence - neither children, nor values left in the form of achievements in work or art, nor anything else. A person with high intelligence, as a rule, is aware of each new stage of his life in the form of changes in passport age as an inevitable new step to aging and disappearance. For a highly organized brain, this is a tragedy.
Dissatisfaction with the need to spend a lot of time on other people
In the modern world, more and more people with high intelligence live in a guest marriage or do not have children. The point is that they understand that having to constantly put their time on the altar of other people's needs will break them. Recently on the Internet there was a widely discussed post by an American blogger, whose IQ is above 100, who began to write candid posts that, having succumbed to the flow of "being like everyone else" and becoming a mother of three weather children, she began to feel deeply unhappy because she wasted time for herself, and this despite the fact that she loves her children very much, but existence in 24/7 mode only for the sake of the needs of other creatures broke her and led to depression, while all her relatives condemned her for such moods.
There is another aspect of this problem. As a rule, intelligent people are well-mannered, which means that if someone turns to them for help or advice, they will not find the strength to refuse (so as not to offend another) and may be trapped in endless help to others at the expense of the desire for self-development and a tendency to individualism, which makes them unhappy.