Why genius are lonely

As the Termites enter their dotage, the moral of their story — that intelligence does not equate to a better life — has been told again and again. At best, a great intellect makes no differences to your life satisfaction; at worst, it can actually mean you are less fulfilled.

One possibility is that knowledge of your talents becomes something of a ball and chain. Indeed, during the s, the surviving Termites were asked to look back at the events in their year lifespan. Rather than basking in their successes, many reported that they had been plagued by the sense that they had somehow failed to live up to their youthful expectations.

Early achievers don't always go on to be successful Credit: Thinkstock. The most notable, and sad, case concerns the maths prodigy Sufiah Yusof. Enrolled at Oxford University aged 12, she dropped out of her course before taking her finals and started waitressing. She later worked as a call girl.

Constant worrying may, in fact, be a sign of intelligence — but not in the way these armchair philosophers had imagined. Interviewing students on campus about various topics of discussion, Alexander Penney at MacEwan University in Canada found that those with the higher IQ did indeed feel more anxiety throughout the day. Credit: Thinkstock. Probing more deeply, Penney found that this seemed to correlate with verbal intelligence — the kind tested by word games in IQ tests, compared to prowess at spatial puzzles which, in fact, seemed to reduce the risk of anxiety.

He speculates that greater eloquence might also make you more likely to verbalise anxieties and ruminate over them. However, I also realized that one of the reasons I felt alone — and why I most often feel this way in general — had to do with feeling a sense of emotional and intellectual disconnect with the people around me. Click the link to find resources and information on virtually any form of loneliness you may be personally experiencing.

Although being intelligent — both in a traditional sense and an emotional one — can make life easier in many ways, it can also make life much lonelier. Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, refers to having a high emotional quotient, or EQ. High intelligence loneliness can impact individuals in different ways, depending on if they have a high IQ, EQ, or both. For this reason, intelligent adolescents and young adults often struggle financially or feel less satisfied with life in general.

As someone with high emotional intelligence, intellectual loneliness presented itself many times throughout my own life. My parents always described me as being mature for my age. As a child, I sometimes felt misunderstood by my peers and I often befriended adults rather than other children. A lonely intellectual may frequently feel misunderstood, which makes it difficult to reach out and connect with other people.

A common theme that pervades the creativity literature is that creativity demands discourse, tension, dialog, and debate among the interested parties.

Gardner Creativity endeavors are driven by interaction, search, and solitude. One of the most pervasive myths is the notion of the lone genius. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.

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