
How intelligence, population density, and friendship affect modern happiness - doener
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26847844
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pmoriarty
_" More intelligent individuals experience lower life satisfaction with more
frequent socialization with friends."_

This is interesting, and certainly strokes the egos of some of us loners. As
I've grown older, I've come to recognize that I prefer high-quality,
meaningful social interaction to small talk and babbling about banal inanities
that makes up the majority of social interaction amongst most people that I've
met. If I can't get such high quality social interaction, I'd just rather
spend time with myself instead of settling for trivial banter and meaningless
amusements. I have many interests, and am quite content to pursue them by
myself.

Perhaps some of these "more intelligent individuals" just can't easily get the
quality of social interaction they desire. I often feel that the best
conversations I've had have been with people who are long dead.. that is, with
great authors, through their books. For me, it's difficult to find living
human beings who can live up to that standard of conversation. How easy is it
to find people who think on the level of Socrates, Plato, or Dostoyevsky (to
name just a few who are well known)? After reading their work, ordinary
conversation just seems so petty and trivial.

Another factor to consider is that many intelligent people are very driven and
focused, often obsessed with their work. They don't have much time for social
interaction, and are happier with their work (where they feel they are making
a difference), with their art, their education or learning. Compared to that,
social interaction can seem like a waste of time.

Finally, there's the question of what counts as social interaction. Does it
have to be done in person? Can it be virtual? Does letter writing or
participating in an online forum count? How about writing articles or books?
The latter has been described as participation in a long coversation with
other authors throughout literary history.

