Are Smart People Actually Happier? - Adam Mastroianni

Adam Mastroianni is a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School and a writer whose research focuses on how people perceive and misperceive their social worlds. Does being smart make you happy? Does being dumb make you miserable? Why did the guy who created eugenics also get published in Nature for a revolutionary way to cut a cake? Adam is one of my favourite writers so today I get to ask him all these things. Expect to learn why super smart people can be so stupid, Adam's issue with the productivity approach of eating frogs, whether you can learn arithmetic by smell, why humans misjudge what other people want to talk about, why we forget so many of the things that we've learned, how come it's trendy to call the general public stupid and much more... Sponsors: Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D and more from Athletic Greens at https://athleticgreens.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get 20% discount on House Of Macadamias’ nuts at https://houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom (use code MW20) Extra Stuff: Follow Adam's Substack - https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/ Check out Adam's website - https://www.adammastroianni.com/ Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #happiness #iq #psychology - 00:00 Intro 05:23 Why Aren’t Smart People Happier? 16:25 Adam’s Issue with ‘Eating the Frog’ 25:12 The Strange Work & Tests of Sir Francis Galton 34:31 How We Misjudge Conversations 38:26 What the Media is Overlooking in Society 41:04 Why We Forget So Much of What We Learn 49:45 How Adam Overcomes Writer’s Block 1:00:30 How We Misperceive the Sanity of Others 1:06:55 Is It Possible to Overcome our Inherent Biases? 1:11:11 Where to Find Adam - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Adam MastroianniguestChris Williamsonhost

Feb 4, 20231h 11mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: February 4, 2023
Duration: 1h 11m
Channel: Modern Wisdom
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Adam Mastroianni is a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School and a writer whose research focuses on how people perceive and misperceive their social worlds. Does being smart make you happy? Does being dumb make you miserable? Why did the guy who created eugenics also get published in Nature for a revolutionary way to cut a cake? Adam is one of my favourite writers so today I get to ask him all these things. Expect to learn why super smart people can be so stupid, Adam's issue with the productivity approach of eating frogs, whether you can learn arithmetic by smell, why humans misjudge what other people want to talk about, why we forget so many of the things that we've learned, how come it's trendy to call the general public stupid and much more... Sponsors: Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D and more from Athletic Greens at https://athleticgreens.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get 20% discount on House Of Macadamias’ nuts at https://houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom (use code MW20) Extra Stuff: Follow Adam's Substack - https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/ Check out Adam's website - https://www.adammastroianni.com/ Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #happiness #iq #psychology - 00:00 Intro 05:23 Why Aren’t Smart People Happier? 16:25 Adam’s Issue with ‘Eating the Frog’ 25:12 The Strange Work & Tests of Sir Francis Galton 34:31 How We Misjudge Conversations 38:26 What the Media is Overlooking in Society 41:04 Why We Forget So Much of What We Learn 49:45 How Adam Overcomes Writer’s Block 1:00:30 How We Misperceive the Sanity of Others 1:06:55 Is It Possible to Overcome our Inherent Biases? 1:11:11 Where to Find Adam - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

SPEAKERS

Adam Mastroianni
guest
Chris Williamson
host

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Adam Mastroianni and Chris Williamson, Are Smart People Actually Happier? - Adam Mastroianni explores why High IQ Doesn’t Guarantee Happiness, Meaning, Or Wisdom Psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni argues that conventional intelligence tests capture only a narrow slice of what minds do, and that IQ has essentially no relationship with life satisfaction. He criticizes academic peer review and the professionalization of science, favoring honest, public-facing work and playful experimentation over opaque, status-driven systems. The conversation explores why smart people chase prestige, money, and productivity ‘games’ that undermine happiness, and how strong but wrong theories of happiness, work, and self-discipline keep them stuck. They also discuss eugenics and Francis Galton as a cautionary tale about moral blindness, how we misjudge other people’s minds, and why vibes and lived experience matter more than meticulously memorizing cognitive biases.

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