{"id":1547,"date":"2010-03-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=1547"},"modified":"2018-04-03T08:33:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T15:33:07","slug":"does-thinking-about-the-ideal-life-actually-lead-to-living-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/11\/does-thinking-about-the-ideal-life-actually-lead-to-living-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Thinking About the Ideal Life Actually Lead to Living One?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Daydreams<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe unexamined life is not worth living.\u201d<\/em> – Socrates<\/p>\n

Do introspective, intelligent people enjoy life more than the masses? Often not.<\/p>\n

Ben Casnocha wrote this<\/a> after the death of David Foster Wallace. Awarded the MacArthur genius grant, Wallace was brilliant, but unfortunately, as Casnocha writes:<\/p>\n

Wallace’s suicide raises for me the question about the correlation between enlightenment and depression. How much truth is there to the phrase “ignorance is bliss”? How unbearable is genius?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wallace is certainly an exceptional case, but it raises a point about introspection in general. I\u2019ve had many readers email me that they felt both intelligent and thoughtful, but somehow led less fulfilling lives than their apparently unthinking peers.<\/p>\n

Is Introspection a Good Thing?<\/h2>\n

To skip to the punch line, my answer is yes. But, then again, I\u2019m incredibly biased. I\u2019ve centered much of my life around the introspective pursuit of knowledge and the ideal life. Introspectiveness forms such a large component of my identity, even if I were wrong, perhaps I wouldn\u2019t be able to admit it.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019d like to present some of the pitfalls of introspection, why it might be dangerous and also what I feel is its ultimately redeeming quality.<\/p>\n

Why Introspection Might Leave You Miserable<\/h2>\n

There are a few easy explanations for why smart, thoughtful people are miserable.<\/p>\n

The first is that the world, and life in general, really is terrible. Ignorance is a defense mechanism to escape the inevitable conclusion of nihilism and pessimism. The truly intelligent cannot ignore this conclusion, so inevitably spiral into despair, being unable to delude themselves into happiness.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like this explanation. It fails to explain why so many intelligent people are also extremely driven and happy.<\/p>\n

Another explanation is that introspectiveness and misery are coupled. That the cognitive mechanisms that make someone brilliant also encourage unhappiness. So unhappy thinkers aren\u2019t depressed because they have come to some horrific conclusion about the world, but that their brains are simply hardwired for it.<\/p>\n

To a certain extend, I believe this is true. Extreme cases of depression have deeper genetic and biological roots, so it makes sense that some people are just born happier than others. Perhaps the introspective people are hardwired to think so much because they naturally enjoy the sensory and unarticulated aspects of life less, leading to lower happiness.<\/p>\n

A final explanation, and my favorite, is that introspection is only half of the skill you need to pursue the ideal life. In addition to introspection, you also need another ingredient. So without this other ingredient, your thoughtfulness can never be realized, so it loses control. The desire for the ideal life is there, just that you\u2019ve become impotent to obtain it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Missing Half?<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know if there is a good word to place on the missing half. If I had to pick I would say, \u201cactualization\u201d but that doesn\u2019t seem entirely right either.<\/p>\n

Actualization is the ability not only to think your thoughts, but to translate those thoughts into reality. To not just philosophize about the meaning of life, but to live it every single day. If self-reflection never translates into the real world, it simply mutates and multiplies inside your head.<\/p>\n

Stanford professor of neuroendocrinology, Robert Sapolsky (another MacArthur genius grant recipient) has spent his entire career studying stress. Yet, even he admits, he faces a lot of stress in his day-to-day life. He worries, in this video:<\/p>\n