How to Be Happy Even If You're Smart
Being smart can wreck your social life and your relations with your co-workers, but it doesn't have to be that way. Once you recognize and acknowledge that most of the people you encounter every day are as dumb as a bag of rocks, and perfectly satisfied to operate at a minimum level of competence, you're on your way to a happier life. There's no more need for misery and frustration. No more feeling that you need to be cured or fixed: "Hello everyone, my name is Big Brain and I'm too smart for my own good."
It's easy to avoid the resentment of your intellectual inferiors. Just follow these simple rules.
Don't volunteer. Once you've shown that you can do a job superbly by other people's standards, you'll be swamped with demands to be the "go-to" person. People will come to depend on you, and resent it. And you'll take the blame if anything goes wrong.
Don't offer unasked for advice. Most bad solutions or sloppy jobs don't matter in the long run, and serve to keep repairmen and problem-solvers steadily employed. If your advice is accepted, it will be implemented badly, and you'll be blamed. The more good advice you give, the more people will come to depend on you and resent you.
Keep your vocabulary at a sixth or seventh grade level. Most people don't read and will accuse you of keeping a dictionary handy so you can snow them with "fifty cent" words. Of course, fifty cents won't get you far these days, so you may hear about "five dollar" words, instead.
Keep your mouth shut. Learn to smile and shrug when you're asked for an opinion. If pressed, some safe evasions are "I'm not sure, but...," and "I don't really know much about that, but maybe...." "What do you think?" will probably work most of the time.
Don't make jokes. Most people are fairly literal-minded and won't understand puns, metaphors, or allusions to anything except celebrities, TV shows, sports, and sex.
Become more informed about the amusements and concerns of the plebes. It can afford you hours of your own private amusement, and you will have something to talk about that others can actually understand.
The bottom line. Your goal is to avoid being labeled with the mark of the beast: intelligence, while getting the most enjoyment possible from observing and interacting with the natives in their natural environment.
Published by Catana
How to Clean Up Your E-Mail and Internet Postings Do you know if you're a bad speller? This one's for you, bud.- A How-To Guide for Getting Admitted to College: Tips for 2008 - 2009 ClassesHow to maximize your opportunities to gain admission to the college of your choice!
- How to Be an Expert ShopperThis article has some really great shopping tips for that person who really doesn't like to shop.
- How to Ask a Girl to Prom in Any SituationA few common prospective prom date scenarios and how to turn them into actual prom dates!
- How to Compliment a Man: Guys like Compliments Too! Here's How to Compliment Him...I always like to compliment guys. If they do something nice or look really cute, I tell them. And, let me tell you, they love it.
- How to Be a Happy Person
- How to Be a Good Husband
- How to Be the Best Girlfriend
- How to Create a Happy Self-Confident Child
- How to Be a Goth in Five Easy Steps - Chapter One
- How to Have a Happy Marriage
- How to REALLY Get Your Ex Back!
Everybody thinks they're above average.
Stupid people don't have the capacity to recognize their own stupidity.
12 Comments
Post a CommentFunny article. I write a lot and I'm a loner, so not bothered by morons much - unless you include Republicans. Celebrities, TV shows, sports, and sex are all fun and can make an intellectual snob more interesting and less of a snob. My dad is world famous sociologist at Harvard University, and he loves sports.
Or you could admit you have no idea what you are talking about. It seems you are the one who has no experience.
Brandy, it's either a joke, for people who "get it," or semi-serious who've experienced the downside of being too smart. Maybe your problem with the artilce is that you haven't experienced that, and you also lack a sense of humor.
Then it should have been labeled in PROSE. Since this is NOT helpful to anyone. You said yourself it is a joke, some might think you are serious. Perhaps you should let them know it's not real advice.
Yes, Brandy, it's a joke. I thought that seemed pretty clear.
You're pretty much saying "Hey if you're smarter than your friends, why not change everything about yourself to fit in. Or perhaps ACTING dumb could even help you get more friends." I find this article useless. Unless you mislabeled it, maybe it should be found under PROSE? I do believe in self-help books, but this piece is just telling the reader to be someone you're not and hope it works. I just don't see how anyone can be "happy", as your title says, when you're telling them to not talk unless asked. You're informing people to "keep your mouth shut, don't joke, and when you are allowed to speak, talk like a 6th grader." I did not find this article helpful at all. It's a joke, right?
It's as if you've been spying in my head. I'm an Aspie so it took me a really long time to figure out that anything that genuinely interested or amused me would confuse others and inspire rancor . I just figured that I was doing something wrong simply by existing.
" ...either an overachieving moron, or a slothful genius." Hmmm. that's a hard choice. Guess I'll pick B.
No one would ever tell me what my IQ is, leading me to believe I'm either an overachieving moron, or a slothful genius. So I took a six question test online that labeled me at 145 and did I want to pay a bunch of bucks to take the rest of the test? Ah, no. I'm sure the other 600 questions are superfluous, and that I am in fact a Big Brain. (Love that term.) This is so funny, and I have a Bigger Brain friend to share it with.
OMG!... I just found out how high my IQ is, and am beginning to understand why I have walked away from so many jobs and so many "friends". You hit the nail on the head with this one. I am going to check out your websites.