barefooter
Member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2013
- Messages
- 218
I've heard Peat and others talk about how higher intelligence can tend to go with higher levels of social isolation. It seems like he takes the stance that it's the intelligence that causes one to not fit in, and become isolated, but I've been thinking about this a bunch lately, and I think it's significantly more complex and interesting than that. I think just saying you're too smart to connect with others is actually a bit of an elitist attitude.
A lot of this is based on my personal experiences as being someone who tends to become isolated, as well as reading about these issues from others. I think the average person probably has pretty similar brain power, and it really comes down to how your intelligence was nurtured when growing up, which can be dramatically different for various people. People who tend to become more intelligent seem to be the ones with a natural curiosity that are reading and learning outside of school.
I think essentially what happens, is the child becomes exceptionally good at amusing themselves with their intelligence. That is, they derive a tremendous amount of pleasure from reading and thinking about complex abstract ideas. A child may go to these types of things because they are already feeling somewhat like an outsider, or they may just have a natural curiosity. Continuing down this path, I think we setup a positive feedback loop, that if left unchecked will continually increase intelligence and also isolation. As intelligence increases, so does the joy gained from thinking, which starts to tip the scale where thinking becomes more desirable than interacting with reality at times.
The individual can fall so much in love with their own thoughts, that they'll start desiring increased isolation, because others are just getting in the way of their pleasures of the mind. They're getting more pleasure out of their own mind then they are from other people, and it's always available and free, so it is easily self reinforcing. You can actually view this as an addiction of sorts, since it follows a similar pattern of seeking pleasure from a single source (intelligence/thought here) and neglecting friendships and other realities, leading to isolation, and physical and mental health issues.
I think the TLDR here is:
Highly intelligent don't become isolated because they cant connect with people, but rather that they're simply more interested in thinking than connecting with people.
I think this all ties in with depression and mania in very interesting ways that I've been pondering a lot, but I won't share those thoughts just yet.
A lot of this is based on my personal experiences as being someone who tends to become isolated, as well as reading about these issues from others. I think the average person probably has pretty similar brain power, and it really comes down to how your intelligence was nurtured when growing up, which can be dramatically different for various people. People who tend to become more intelligent seem to be the ones with a natural curiosity that are reading and learning outside of school.
I think essentially what happens, is the child becomes exceptionally good at amusing themselves with their intelligence. That is, they derive a tremendous amount of pleasure from reading and thinking about complex abstract ideas. A child may go to these types of things because they are already feeling somewhat like an outsider, or they may just have a natural curiosity. Continuing down this path, I think we setup a positive feedback loop, that if left unchecked will continually increase intelligence and also isolation. As intelligence increases, so does the joy gained from thinking, which starts to tip the scale where thinking becomes more desirable than interacting with reality at times.
The individual can fall so much in love with their own thoughts, that they'll start desiring increased isolation, because others are just getting in the way of their pleasures of the mind. They're getting more pleasure out of their own mind then they are from other people, and it's always available and free, so it is easily self reinforcing. You can actually view this as an addiction of sorts, since it follows a similar pattern of seeking pleasure from a single source (intelligence/thought here) and neglecting friendships and other realities, leading to isolation, and physical and mental health issues.
I think the TLDR here is:
Highly intelligent don't become isolated because they cant connect with people, but rather that they're simply more interested in thinking than connecting with people.
I think this all ties in with depression and mania in very interesting ways that I've been pondering a lot, but I won't share those thoughts just yet.