Why majority of silicon valley founders are existentially depressed? - dkeixm
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nibs
I think intelligence is kind of like a fountain. All the water being sprayed
in the air is how smart you are. As the water gets higher, the individual
drops are further apart from each other and from the source of the water.

Intelligence is similar, the smarter you are, the later you are in the
"stream" and further you are from either people earlier in the "stream" or
others who are at the same stage.

I think a lot of what makes existential depression (at least, if you are
referring to the Dabrowski theory) [1] is the lonliness of having such a
unique way of thinking.

Ignorance is bliss and most people do not worry about the world depleting
resources, EMP attacks, meteorites, shifts in political discourse or other
threats to humanity from such a "meta-self-aware" level. They just live their
lives.

For very smart people, continually worrying about large scale threats to
humanity instead of your own small problems is both inevitable and makes you
feel powerless.

It is like the Peter Principal for environment threat neutralization. You will
keep thinking of higher order threats to protect against until you run out of
locus of control.

The theory also suggests that this can be overcome by deliberately accepting
our limited locus of control, through love and relationships, and through
contribution.

[1]: [http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/existential-
depressio...](http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/existential-depression-
in-gifted-individual)

