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How Smart Leaders Can Be Less Miserable - by Arthur C. Brooks
I might be biased, but I suspect this newsletter has a sharp readership. You likely lead teams and product lines (and probably companies, too), jobs that require some intellectual horsepower. And if you’re a good leader, you have hired a bunch of smart people under you. But in your effort to build more happiness at work, all that cleverness might be getting in your way. Let me explain.
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know,” an unnamed character casually remarks in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Garden of Eden. You might say that this is a corollary of the much more famous “Ignorance is bliss.”
I can think of a lot of unhappy intellectuals, to be sure. And a whole lot of unhappy executives. But is intelligence really their problem? Happiness scholars have studied this question, and the answer is—as in so many parts of life—it depends. The gifts you possess can lift you up or pull you down; it all depends on how you use them. Many people see intelligence as a way to get ahead of others. But to get happier, we need to do the opposite.
You might assume that intelligence—whether it be the conventional IQ kind, emotional intelligence, musical talent, or some other dimension—raises happiness, all else being equal. After all, people with higher cognitive ability should logically have more exciting life opportunities than others. They should also acquire more resources with which to enhance their well-being.
In general, however, there is next-to-no correlation between general intelligence and life satisfaction at the individual level. (Though there are a few wrinkles including some research that shows people with high vocabularies might “talk themselves into misery”—how parlous!)
I think there is a clear reason that something as valuable as intelligence, especially manifested in one’s ability to communicate, doesn’t necessarily lead to a higher quality of life.
One of life’s cruelest mysteries is why we are impelled to pursue rewards that bring success, but not happiness. Mother Nature drives us toward the four goals of money, power, pleasure, and prestige with the promise that these rewards will bring happiness. That lavish salary, or that prestigious title, or that corner office promises happiness, right? In truth, the correlation might be positive, but the causation is probably reversed: Happier people naturally get these rewards. But seek them for their own sake, for your own gain, and happiness will likely fall. Accordingly, if you aspire to use your cleverness for personal benefit—for the praise and admiration of others, or to climb the corporate ladder at the expense of others—woe be unto you.
The smarter you are, the better equipped you should be to understand that well-being comes from faith, family, friendship, and work that serves others. In the context of work, serving others is the real key as we covered in Week 1—but it requires some smarts to tailor your job to serve others, or to focus regularly on whom you are serving (however directly or indirectly). Your intelligence is more likely to bring you happiness if you put it to use by chasing better ways to love and serve others, rather than elbowing others aside and hoarding worldly rewards.
In some ways, you can think of intelligence as a resource just like money or power. We know how to make the latter two sources of joy: Share them with others and use them as a force for good in the world. To make smarts a fount of happiness, too, we can follow the same guide. This week’s Happiness Exercises offer strategies for how to use your intelligence in a way that lends itself to greater happiness.
