Coalescent

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

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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 :)

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

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

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

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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...

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See, for me, it doesn't. If I had to discard one state from my life - if I could never be happy again, or I could never be smart again - then happy would go, pretty much straight away. I would rather be emotionally neutral than intellectually neutral.

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You are a Vulcan and ICM €5......

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No; I'd just rather be a vulcan than a cretin.

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Must. Not. Make. Bitchy. Comment.....

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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.

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And here I was expecting you to bring up Brave New World. ;-)

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Now you're talking about types of smart. Put a D&D way, there's wisdom, and there's intelligence. I reckon intelligence and happiness sit happier side by side than wisdom and happiness.

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I reckon intelligence and happiness sit happier side by side than wisdom and happiness.

Interesting; I take the opposite view. I think knowing stuff is more or less neutral on the happiness scale, but thinking about stuff will get you into trouble every time. :)

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Heh. Maybe that's about our relative interpretations of "wisdom" and "intelligence". I take wisdom to mean "knowing how things are and what people are like" whereas intelligence is more about "being able to work logically through an argument; knowing stuff (like facts)".

*ponders*

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It's at times like this we need the services of a full time philosopher..... ;-)

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OK, I've thunk (not much, but it's probably all you're going to get from me on a day when I have a pile of 30 essays to mark ;) ...

IME, people who deliberately reject/hide from what's going on (like politics, the news, and so on) are probably slightly happier (in that they don't spend much time angsting over The State Of Things). However, I don't want to be one of them. Not least because everyone gets ruffled about something, and if it's not What's Going On In The World, then it's going to be What Kind Of Cutlery Defines Me As A Person. You take my point.

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Can we find one who'll do paid work by the hour? :)

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What about The Culture where people have pretty much left the thinking to the things that are better at it (The Minds)?

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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.

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They're two sides of the same coin, surely? The Culture is a utopia: its inhabitants have given up their intellectual responsibilities to beings who are genuinely better at that sort of thing than humans. Brave New World is a dystopia: people are kept happy so that they don't start thinking.

Actually, a better opposite might be Fahrenheit 451, in which people turn away from knowledge and thinking just because it's easier.

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IME, people who deliberately reject/hide from what's going on (like politics, the news, and so on) are probably slightly happier (in that they don't spend much time angsting over The State Of Things).

That's true. But I think people who don't get involved in what's going on because it just doesn't occur to them are slightly happier again, and I really don't want to be one of them. :)

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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.

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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.

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