Knowledge and sadness...

[The_Reaper]

I've read before - expressed many times in different ways - that the more a person learns about the world and the wiser he or she becomes, the less "happiness" or contentment they experience daily. Does anyone agree? Is ignorance bliss?

When we are born, we are innocent and "pure"; when we grow older we start to lose this innocence but we still go through long periods of naivete. The less naive we become and the more knowledge we accumulate, the darker we realise the world is...

Most of the people I know who are very intelligent are usually also quite dark individuals. On the other hand, people who always seem joyful are usually naive about many areas of life.

This can be applied to knowledge of women. A lot of guys who have sex with different women very often are not very happy people, below the surface. Many are mysogonistic, many just are simply not happy.

Is too much knowledge damaging to a person's happiness?

 

[Kerpal]

Ignorance is bliss

 

[PRMoon]

I think this is only partly true. The more educated you are, the more you'll understand about how short your life really is, that humans are capeable of some very bad things, that the world is on enivetable collision course with doom blah blah blah. If you look at it from that perspective things are pretty bleak for us all and knowing that can make for a sad existance

The alternative though is not to worry about the bigger picture and enjoy the smaller moments and treasure that. A moment with someone you care for, a spring/summer/fall/winter day, a scenic point in an exotic location, winning a big basketball/football/hockey/baseball/soccer game and so on and so forth. If you learn to look at the positive things that are happening around you and don't let the negative dragg you down, no matter how many negative things you conceptuatlize and understand, you should live a relatively happy life.

 

[Prof]

Honesetly, I think that's a load of crap.

I know most of the professors in the math department at my college as I've taken classes from most of them. One thing sticks out from all of that - only one (1, as in uno, single, and not a pair) of them is overly negative. They've all got Ph Ds in mathematics (except one of them - the Russian - who's got a Ph D in physics) and they're all pretty happy people.

Drawing comparasins between the angry and the happy Ph D is hard. It's completely obvious that this guy is angrier than his peers, but I can't pin a needle on why. Thus, the very least, my experiences in this department and from what I've heard of other departments show direct contradiction with the proposed generalization here. (I would say that my whole campus, which employs several hundred Ph Ds, stands as a one big great counterexample.)

 

[Delta]

well,

solomon, purportedly the wisest guys in the old testament, says as much so you've got scripture on your side.

but the alternative is NO POWER. sure, "heavy is the crown" but would you rather be king or a serf or slave?

delta

 

[DJF AGAIN!]

Before I'm banned again, I think I should help shed some light to the original poster. You said,

"that the more a person learns about the world and the wiser he or she becomes, the less "happiness" or contentment they experience daily."

Actually it's quite the opposite. The more I learn about business, the easier it becomes. The more I learn about women, the easier it becomes. The more I learn about the entertainment business, the easier it becomes. BUT I BELIEVE...you are coming from a DIFFERENT TYPE OF LEARNING. I don't really believe you are learning more WHAT TO DO'S AND WHY THEY WORK, type of things...I think you are learning more BAD THINGS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU type of things. Do you know what I mean? Now...I'm not saying shyt doesn't happen, but this goes back to my original statement...the more you learn about the world, the less SHYT you have to deal with, because you learn how to GET OUT OF THE WAY of shyt before the azzes even get on the toilet seat.


You said,

"When we are born, we are innocent and "pure"; when we grow older we start to lose this innocence but we still go through long periods of naivete. The less naive we become and the more knowledge we accumulate, the darker we realise the world is..."

The world isn't dark, actually the world is quite bright, but if you yourself is in a dark place in your life (which most of the time comes from confusion)...then everything around you will look dark. I've always said, SALES IS THE BEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY. The reason being, THERE'S MORE PROSPECTS BORN EACH DAY (new businesses), and all you have to do is get the message out and SERVICE THE INTERESTED CLIENTS...what's so hard about that??

Same with women. The problem is most guys don't like to talk and approach lots of women. They want to talk with 5 girls and expect one of those 5 to be "the one" But these guys don't even understand, it takes being with LOTS OF GIRLS to even know what your "the one" EVEN ACTS LIKE.

-John

 

[n00bPimp]

Philosophists, writers, scientists, and english teachers are pretty unhappy people.

 

[bearfan34201]

Philosophists, writers, scientists, and english teachers are pretty unhappy people.

lol agreed.


I agree on being educated and whatever can be depressing. I'm not talking about regular people who do decent in school. But people who know the big picture, I mean ****. I know some things about the earth we live in that depresses the hell out of me. The comet that is suppose to hit earth in like 2020, The super volcano at yellowstone. I pray to god that it doesnt happen in my lifetime or my kids(when I have them)


I look at it liek this, as hard as it can be. I live once, and screw being depressed and sitting around. I've been sick and I can't stay home. I gotta be going. I still go out, I understand that life is short. Hell, I can't play a video game for 30 min before I feel like im wasting time. I rather be on the computer learning about whatever than playing a video game or sitting. Times short, I intend to make the most of it.


Live your life. Love your live. Enjoy it!


What does it matter what I do with my life?

I'll tell you who it matters to. ME. That is the most ridiculous statement ever. Life matters. It's what you have. Don't tell me it doesnt matter. Maybe to you it doesnt. But to me and a lot of others on here. It sure as hell does.

 

[The_Reaper]

Bearfan:

Does it matter if you "make the most of it (life)"?
When you die, nothing you did alive will matter, nothing. Everything you did will count as NOTHING, it won't exist anymore.
The "Becoming great and valuable for future generations" argument is ridiculous. Even they will die, so does it matter if you "helped" them live life a little easier? We have no purpose here on earth, nothing does.

What about Adolph Hitler? He's dead, so everything he did counts as nothing. I see.

 

[The_Reaper]

It doesn't, really.
The generations after him that was/will be affected by his actions will die too, so yes it doesn't count.
NOTHING counts, because everyone WILL DIE, no matter what they did in life/how they were affected by other people's actions.

Is that so hard to understand?

That is amazingly bad thinking. Eventually the universe is going to shrink into nothing - all life and matter will cease to exist. So what should we do? Commit mass suicide?
SENTIENCE matters - its transience only makes it more precious, NOT LESS.

Is that so hard to understand?

 

[Bvbidd]

This post is as true as it gets.

This is why every single fvcken one of my posts are fvcken negative.

But hey, as long as your life is spent doing something other then trying to be happy, you will be happy. Funny how that works.

-- By trying to improve myself I'm going against this point, scientists aren't trying to improve themselves, their trying to cure cancer, their happy.

 

[Nighthawk]

This post is as true as it gets.

This is why every single fvcken one of my posts are fvcken negative.

Because you're such a genius?

Negative people often fantasize that it makes them deep.

Scientists are all miserable? Hilarious.

 

[Bvbidd]

-- By trying to improve myself I'm going against the above point, scientists aren't trying to improve themselves, their trying to cure cancer, their happy.

 

[blueguy]

The more knowledge you acquire, the more you have to acquire exponentially. It's only when you're repeatedly acquiring the same knowledge and don't find a new challenge to conquer that you become sad. The brain thrives on challenging situations to keep depression from setting in.

 

[Yankee.Hotel.Foxtrot]

Such thinking is only depressing if you consider yourself above nature. So you die? Of course you do. You are a human being, you bleed and break like anything else on the planet. It's as though people seek immortality through philosopy, but when if comes down to it you are still organic matter.

You can either fight your nature as a human or you can embrace it. Knowledge may be overwhelming at first but in the end it's liberating.