Poll: Smart or Happy?

[coalescent]

Inspired by Eastern Standard Tribe. Assume these are either/or questions when of course in reality they're not:

[Poll #289485]
I'd be interested in hearing people's reasons for their answers; I take the first option to all three questions, but I'm not sure why.

Comments

[fba.livejournal.com]

I find the idea that the two are mutually exclusive rather odd tbh.....

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

You see up there where I said I knew that? :-p

I'm trying to get at which people consider more important, I suppose.

[fba.livejournal.com]

Impossible to answer - depends on context and a million other factors......

[plasticsturgeon.livejournal.com]

But they're one and the same, a lot of the time.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

1a) thinking doesn't preclude laughing ;)

1b) Thinking for the next ten minutes is good. Thinking for the next ten hours is not.

2) Being smart doesn't preclude being happy

3) even thinky types like to ease off and veg in front of the TV :)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

2) Being smart doesn't preclude being happy

Serious answer: And being happy doesn't preclude being smart, but I'm interested in people's priorities.

Flippant answer: But sometimes I think it makes it an awful lot harder...

[ajp.livejournal.com]

Being smart doesn't preclude being happy

Obligatory "Simpsons" reference

Yes it does.

Lisa: "Dad, as intelligence goes up, happiness often goes down. In fact I made a graph... [wistfully] I make a lot of graphs..."

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" -- she always called me Elwood -- "In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I am, by comparison to many, smart. I mean, it sounds big headed, but face facts, I am. There are a load of people on LJ more analytical and knowledgeable than me on my friends list alone, but I stand by the posited statement, I'm smart.

I use being smart in order to endeavour to be happy. Analysing stuff is something that can often do that for me. Analysing *why* I don't like things sometimes can be more fun than liking it in the first place.

However, I think happiness is my life's goal. I want to be happy, I like being happy. I don't want to be not-smart, but I'm much rather be happy and not understand things that understand exactly how miserable I am. I like things partly because I can appreciate them on a being-smart level, but if I were to be happy regardless, so be it. How can you be unhappy about being happy? I've known enough smart but depressed people to know that that is *not* what I want out of my life.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I use being smart in order to endeavour to be happy.

That's a good way of looking at it. I'd like to think I do the same.

Analysing stuff is something that can often do that for me. Analysing *why* I don't like things sometimes can be more fun than liking it in the first place.

Yes! Fan pet peeve #354: being told I'm clearly not a fan, and I'm clearly not enjoying myself, because I'm being critical.

How can you be unhappy about being happy?

You can't. And yet...there's a part of me that really doesn't like the idea of being happy but oblivious. Probably because I'm not oblivious at the moment, and I see too many people (none of whom are on my friendslist) who are.

Interesting comment; thanks.

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

Hmm, wonder why this poll is showing up in Russian on my friends page?

I opted for the former in all questions, because, for me at least, the best way to the latter seems to be through the former. The way I enjoy books/films is to analyse them. The things that make me laugh usually involve clever wit which require thinking about. Doing lots of thinking often makes me happy.

But even so, if it was an either/or situation, I'd still opt for the first option in every case. And I think it's because of the kind of underlying qualities that I find 'good' or valuable. In ethics there's the question of whether happiness is the ultimate good. I think happiness is a very important part of good, but perhaps not the only part of it. There's a thought experiment that's suppose to demonstrate this: a happiness machine could turn you into a blissful vegetable for the rest of your life, or you could carry on with your less than blissful life as it is, risking more pain and suffering in the future. If you choose not to go in the happiness machine, it's supposed to indicate that you value more than merely happiness, and I think I probably agree with this.

If I have to choose between being a deliriously happy dog, or a more aware but less happy philosopher, I go for being a philosopher.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Hmm, wonder why this poll is showing up in Russian on my friends page?

To remind you of the futility of seeking happiness on your own, comrade. Fulfillment can only be found through working hard for the benefit of the state.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

In ethics there's the question of whether happiness is the ultimate good. I think happiness is a very important part of good, but perhaps not the only part of it.

This sounds sensible to me.

If you choose not to go in the happiness machine, it's supposed to indicate that you value more than merely happiness, and I think I probably agree with this.

I think if the machine turned you into the deliriously happy dog it would be a more interesting choice; once you've made the choice, either way you're going to be deliriously happy, but it's got to be more tempting to know you could be deliriously happy and chasing sticks than it is to know you could be deliriously happy and just lying there. :)

[kittynic]

I chose think because it means if I were to laugh I would be unable to answer this poll.

I chose to be smart because at least being smart I could maybe work out a way to be happy.

I chose to sit back and analyse because that's what I like to do with my favourite shows. The ones that I can discuss and speculate on future plot points.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I chose to be smart because at least being smart I could maybe work out a way to be happy.

...whereas of course the inverse is not true. Good point.

[wg.livejournal.com]

I chose think over laugh for the next ten mins cos i was about to listen to this mornings In Our Time :-)

Sit Back and enjoy is my choice, because while i can analyse i'm not sure i'm very good at it. I enjoy reading/listening to other people's analysis and maybe joining in a bit, but its not something i do that well. I like to throw myself into a book, and (hopefully) enjoy it thoroughly. I will think about it, of course, but often its that first ride that i'm in it for.

Smart of Happy is a bugger, naturally. I went with Happy, in that i've been very unhappy and i know which i prefer. However, despite what you say about either or, i can't seperate my smarts from my happy. Its just not possible. Happiness comes from a host of whole host things for me, and so there is an intellectual component to it.

Happy, in this either/or thing, sounds to me like it would be have to be a blissful, out of it, lotus eating state. Which is not something i would choose, or i imagine would work for most people here.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I ticked "laugh" for the first option, because I can always think (except when I'm up too late too long and brain goes foggy) but laughing is rarer, so I want it more.

I'd rather be smart than happy. That is, if I had to choose. But I don't see them as incompatible.

I didn't pick either option because my choice is "Sit back, enjoy, analyse!"

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Good choices ... but I picked think, smart, and sit back and enjoy (just try to stop me from analyzing! but finding a show or book I enjoy, that's more difficult). Like others, I'm assuming I'll be intelligent enough to figure out how to be happy from time to time. After all, it's worked so far!

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

In the next ten minutes I would rather laugh. Since then I have to go back to thinking for the rest of the day. If it were *in general* it would be a more difficult choice.

I'd rather be smart than happy, in general. But being happy is a thing that comes and goes, whereas if you're smart, you're probably going to always be smart. I'd like to think I can do both.

The last one is no contest - I will sit back and enjoy.

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

More frivolously, I chose to think in the next ten mintues because I have lots of work to do. If I'm laughing I'm not working, but if I'm thinking I am, and I need to get some work done right now!

[kalorlo.livejournal.com]

I chose think, happy, sit back and enjoy.

Think: well, I'm sitting here reading this thread rather than, say, reading mock_the_stupid :)

Happy: I'd rather be a bit less smart if I can keep being happy rather than being smarter and unhappy. I'm going for changing one state up and the other down because at the moment I'm pretty much both smart and happy, so choosing to lose either one would leave me worse off, and in that case I would choose not to choose. (Besides, if it was between smart and not-smart, how smart would not-smart be?) Being less smart just means I would have to put a bit more effort into understanding something than I would now, and that's fine. But being smarter and having to try to be happy is less likely to work out...

Plus, I am generally quite a happy person, so being persistently unhappy would change me far more than being less smart would.

Note: I don't think choosing not to be smart would leave you with no desire to understand the wider world - just that it would be harder and require more thought. You can still enjoy intellectual stimulation even if you're less good at it than currently.


Sit back and enjoy: I've mentioned before that I do enjoy reading other people's dissections of TV shows, but am really not very good at it myself. I prefer to enjoy, to be surprised, and to speculate about what will happen next or play Guess-the-Ending, but not go into full-on analysis of what I've just watched. Too much analysis can take the fun and surprises out of what's coming next, and at least part of how I judge a really good show or episode is its ability to surprise me.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Sit back and enjoy: I've mentioned before that I do enjoy reading other people's dissections of TV shows, but am really not very good at it myself. I prefer to enjoy, to be surprised, and to speculate about what will happen next or play Guess-the-Ending, but not go into full-on analysis of what I've just watched. Too much analysis can take the fun and surprises out of what's coming next, and at least part of how I judge a really good show or episode is its ability to surprise me.

This is my attitude to televisual/novellar entertainment in a nutshell. In other words, I can, but mostly, I won't. Analysis destroys the magic.

[truecatachresis.livejournal.com]

As a matter of interest, have you read Flowers for Algernon? This question (I know, you asked three questions...) very much reminds me of the key elements of that book.

I answered Mostly A) - you are too tense, learn to loosen up and enjoy life more. Obviously, they are not mutually exclusive, as many have pointed out, but further than that I think the question is impossible. (Well, number 2, anyway. The others are simpler questions.) My answer to 2 is based on the premise that I, my current self, could not be happy without being smart; my ability to analyse, think, read, discuss, digest and not just consume, is fundamental to my mental picture of myself. Being happy without being smart is NOT ME. And becoming other is one of those things nearly everyone finds abhorrent. So, of necessity, being smart but not happy is the only option I could pick.

Part of the decision is also based on other things, with a looser definition of happy; partly, I took it to mean oblivious. Partly, I also disregarded the fact that being unhappy about something in a sense can make me happy. I enjoy (for certain meanings of enjoy) complaining; if I didn't, I wouldn't do it. It doesn't make me happy, per se, but it does give a sense of, perhaps, fulfillment. (Or smugness, to be more honest, in the good sense of smug.) Being unsatisfied, or unhappy, about things allows the contemplation of how to make them better. In this sense, smart wins over happy, in the long term. This doesn't really fit the question, but as already mentioned I think the question is impossible, and thus has to be interpreted anyway.

Hmm, that's far too much rambling, and probably a little incoherent.

[sulkyblue.livejournal.com]

1) Laugh. I can chose whether or not to think, if I laugh it's generally because of something someone else has done/said. I can think by myself, anytime I want. Laughing is more dependant on others, so I'll take it any time I can.

2) Happy. Being smart would make me happy, therefore covering both options. Kinda cheating I guess ;0)

3) Sit back and enjoy. I was assuming this was a first viewing/reading of something. On first pass I'll always try and enjoy it, I can analyse it on the second pass, but never get back the chance to just sit and enjoy it.

[tags2k.livejournal.com]

I took "think" to mean think about something productive and useful, so I hope that's the right interpretation. My answer for the second question was because I'd rather be intelligent and sensible than a jackass who has no real value in life but is happy with it (or at least appears to be happy) and thinks it's great to get drunk every Saturday night and have a fight. I'm not sure how snobby an answer that is.