08/16/2026
There is a contradiction I have noticed over the years, and I am not sure we talk about it enough. Some of the most intelligent, educated and accomplished people I have known are not particularly happy. Not miserable necessarily. Not clinically depressed. Just... not happy. They have done well by almost every conventional measure. Degrees on the wall. A respectable career. A business. A nice home. A reasonably healthy bank account. Recognition. Status. The children are doing well. People look at their lives and say, “You have done well for yourself.” And they have. Yet something appears to have gone missing somewhere between achievement and arrival. They learned how to succeed. Nobody necessarily taught them how to enjoy succeeding. That may be one of the quieter psychological traps of intelligence.
There is a contradiction I have noticed over the years, and I am not sure we talk about it enough. Some of the most intelligent, educated and accomplished people I have known are not particularly happy. Not miserable necessarily. Not clinically depressed. Just... not happy. They have done well by al...