A friend of mine with a dark and cynical wit, with whom I was enjoying a good dinner at a large and crowded restaurant, looked around him and declared: "So this is what people do? They just exist."
That is the end of the conversation on happiness and most people for me. Despite being brilliant and greatly successful in their chosen fields, not a person I was friends with in school is now in a job that they take joy in. None of my old coworkers who talked on and on about how they hated their jobs have moved on to better things. The most contented people I know do not do very much with their lives. These are not the 'successful' people, nor are they people with whom I would want to spend an enormous amount of time, as they do not have much of interest to say.
It has been suggested that melancholia and depression are deeply related to intelligence and creativity. Good; bring it on. I would much rather have moments of doubt and darkness and get to enjoy all the fruits of the intellectual and creative life than the banal calmness of normal existence.
I think you're right, to a point. I do know creative intellectuals who have found a simple life that pleases them, but as an outsider it always seems to come at the cost of avoiding certain questions and abandoning certain goals. I don't judge them for it; in fact I envy them on occasion, but it's not for me. Nevertheless, it occurs to me that a truly intelligent person who is honestly optimising for "contentedness" (purposely choosing to avoid the more connotative "happiness" here) should learn to satisfy themselves with simple pleasures. People who don't do that are either not truly intelligent, not truly honest, or don't truly seek to live a contented life (and I'm one of them).
That is the end of the conversation on happiness and most people for me. Despite being brilliant and greatly successful in their chosen fields, not a person I was friends with in school is now in a job that they take joy in. None of my old coworkers who talked on and on about how they hated their jobs have moved on to better things. The most contented people I know do not do very much with their lives. These are not the 'successful' people, nor are they people with whom I would want to spend an enormous amount of time, as they do not have much of interest to say.
It has been suggested that melancholia and depression are deeply related to intelligence and creativity. Good; bring it on. I would much rather have moments of doubt and darkness and get to enjoy all the fruits of the intellectual and creative life than the banal calmness of normal existence.