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Intelligence
Living Smarter
A synthesis of this six-part series, plus a few additional ideas.
Posted May 9, 2020 Reviewed by Kaja Perina
This is the final installment in a series of how-to-do-life posts for unusually intelligent people. It synthesizes the previous installments while adding a few ideas.
Honor your intelligence.
Before we get to the specifics, foundationally do try to honor your intelligence by acknowledging it without flaunting it and recognizing your cosmic obligation to well-use that important gift you’ve been bestowed.
Here are some of the series' specific ideas and a few additions:
Prioritize contribution over the pecuniary.
Choose a career that prioritizes contribution over money, whether it be, for example, to be a wise leader, medical researcher, or lawyer who fights to ensure that merit triumphs over other factors.
Consider emphasizing the "work" part of work-life balance.
There are countless brilliant failures. It's sad to see all that talent squandered—It's a bit like seeing someone with a million dollars throwing half down the toilet. If you’re a quite capable person, you might want to emphasize the "work" part of work-life balance in the service of something important. And to work hard at what you’re good at is probably not unhealthy. What’s unhealthy is the stress of work that’s too hard, too repetitive, dangerous, or unethical.
Use that good brain to assess relationships with a clear eye.
Some people feel incomplete unless they're coupled. If that’s you, hold out for someone who is your intellectual peer. You’ll respect each other more and better solve life’s inevitable problems. Try hard to avoid high-maintenance people, no matter how physically attractive. Too problematic or demanding a partner imposes a high a price not just in your relationship but in your work life, health, and happiness.
With regard to children, some people feel that having a child has been life’s most rewarding experience. But, at least among my high-achieving and happy clients, colleagues, and friends, many feel that the sacrifices of child-rearing are too great: a minimum of 18 years of major restriction of your freedom, and that assumes the child doesn't have any serious physical or mental problems and doesn't tend to be oppositional or mean. Many highly intelligent people have such rich lives both at work and avocationally in adult relationships that having children may not be worth it.
If you do have a child, chances are that s/he also is quite intelligent. That gives you the luxury of allowing the child a fair degree of freedom rather than your setting tight boundaries: Smart kids usually have above-average judgment, so for them, the increased self-efficacy and opportunity to learn from failure generally trump the risks. Besides, it’s easier for you as the parent to allow freedom than to often have to be The Enforcer.
Be smart with your money.
Being intelligent, it can be tempting to try to beat the stock market by trying to identify undervalued individual stocks. But the vast majority of people smarter than you and me have tried and failed, having devoted much time that could have been spent more pleasurably and beneficially to themselves and their sphere of influence.
Of course, every person is different, and I am not a licensed financial advisor, but many financial experts agree that most people would be wise to avoid spending the time on active stock picking, let alone on day trading, and invest in a low-cost all-in-one diversified mutual fund, such as a low-cost Vanguard one. Or as I do, invest the riskier part of my portfolio in a fund such as Vanguard Index Growth Fund and the conservative part in a top-yielding government-insured bank CD. A list of the current high yielders is at Bankrate. (Note: I am not paid by anyone to endorse any product.)
If you’re intelligent, prudent, and lucky, chances are you have significant discretionary assets. Sure, you could spend it on luxuries or give it to your kids now and/or in your will. But it’s often wise to give significantly to charity, as long as you do it thoughtfully.
Our hearts, the media, and the Bible may urge us to give to “the least among us,” but while that maximizes virtue signaling, you’ll likely do more good by donating to a cause that helps not those with the greatest deficit but those with greater potential to benefit and, in turn, to improve their sphere of influence if not the broader society. I offered as an example, mentoring intellectually gifted kids in working-class/blue-collar public schools.
Recreate wisely.
With regard to recreation, of course, even brainiacs sometimes want to turn off their brain and do something mindless: from sitting to knitting to binge-watching. But intelligent people contribute to the life well-led by devoting some recreation time to projects that could make a difference while being fun. I call that sort of vacation a projation.
For example, a people person might enjoy leading a team that's planning a celebrity fundraiser for their favorite cause. A word person might write a screenplay about something they value. A visual person might create a vlog of stills and videos on an important theme. Inventor types might try to develop a solution for an annoyance, for example, a car seat that's easier to put your child in. A detail-oriented person might conduct polls of neighbors on ultra-local issues, from home security to the microclimate's most rewarding garden plants.
We're all given but a limited number of heartbeats. This series' goal has been to help you make the most of yours.
I read this aloud on YouTube.
