How Knowing More Can Make You Feel Alone

Ever feel like your wisdom has made you feel isolated? You zoom past the potholes of small talk, effortlessly understand complex concepts, and leave others in the dust when it comes to intellectual pursuits. But then, a strange thing happens. You start feeling…alone. Isolated. Like you’re trapped in a cage of your own brilliance.

Turns out, intelligence doesn’t come with a happiness guarantee. In fact, some might argue it’s a double-edged sword.

Let’s take Alan Turing for example, the enigmatic mathematician who cracked the Enigma code during World War II. He is considered as the true pioneer of computer science. His brilliance was undeniable, but it also came at a cost. He suffered isolation. Turing’s homosexuality, illegal at the time, led to his eventual suicide.

Intelligence alone doesn’t guarantee acceptance or happiness. It can, in fact, create a void between you and others, leaving you feeling like a misunderstood genius.

The Curse of Knowledge

Remember that time you learned about the vastness of the universe and suddenly felt insignificant? Or stumbled upon the concept of nihilism and questioned the very meaning of life? That is exactly the “curse of knowledge.”

It’s like taking the red pill in the Matrix – you see the world in all its messy, complicated glory, and suddenly, the ignorance of others seems strangely appealing.

However, for some, this curse of knowledge can be the biggest motivation.

The more you fall for concepts like Philosophy, psychology, existentialism, nihilism, and spiritualism, the more you realize the ‘awareness’ of things. At first, you’ll start feeling like everybody around you is stupid or let’s say unaware of the reality of the things. Then at some point, you’ll notice, that you too are stupid and don’t know anything like everybody.

And then again at some point, you’ll realize that it is only you who is unaware, the rest are doing just fine in their life. It makes you restless, and you start to question things that eventually make you feel isolated from everyone else.

And especially, the realization that life has no inherent meaning. Why strive, why love, why make friends when everything is ultimately meaningless?

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”

Socrates

As your intelligence grows, so does your awareness of the vastness of the unknown, the limitations of human understanding, and the ephemeral nature of happiness. You see beyond the surface, the mysteries and the universe, often encountering paradoxes and existential questions that leave others blissfully ignorant.

The Weight of Awareness

Being intelligent often means being acutely aware of the impermanence of things. You understand that happiness is fleeting, relationships are fragile, and even life itself is temporary in the vast cosmic arena.

This awareness can be heavy. It can cause feelings of anxiety, depression, and even a touch of existential angst.

According to me, there’s a simple rule – higher intelligence correlates with suffering and pain. That’s why it is said “Ignorance is bliss” because intelligence causes suffering. Intelligence involves understanding your surroundings deeply, realizing your limitations in the vast universe, and knowing that everything is insignificant and makes no sense. It’s all just a human-made concept.

It also means being aware that opening yourself to love comes with the risk of getting hurt. Yet, it’s precisely through facing and overcoming this suffering that you develop a strong heart and the courage to keep living.

If you ever feel, you don’t fit into the world – Know the awesomeness of being socially awkward.

Talking about me, I too sometimes feel like I’m living in a different dimension than everyone else. They talk about their weekends, their job, their favourite movie, and family, and I’m lost in the mysteries of the black holes and the fabric of reality. It’s very hard to find someone who understands, who gets the thrill of knowing the universe’s secrets, who adores looking up at the night sky.

So, where does that leave us?

Is intelligence a curse, a one-way ticket to loneliness and suffering? Perhaps, it may sound like a paradox of intelligence. The very awareness that brings suffering also empowers us to transcend it.

Even the loneliest genius can find solace in the pursuit of knowledge, the beauty of creation, and the simple act of being human in a vast and mysterious universe.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist

What do you think? Is gaining more realization really a curse?

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