In my experience, most who are highly intelligent tend to speak much less about how intelligent they are, for they are aware not only of how much they don’t know, but also how pretty much any measure of intelligence will be in some way inherently flawed.

I also take issue with the idea that “highly intelligent people are miserable”. In my experience, the one thing that correlates most strongly with one’s level of happiness is one’s level of gratitude. It’s not poverty or riches, intelligence or lack thereof, education or lack thereof, but gratitude. Why? Because without gratitude (not only for major things but especially for the little day-to-day blessings most of us take for granted), one can never grasp just how good one’s life really is. I realized this while interacting with squatters in the Philippines.

So do yourself a favor — forget your SAT and ACT scores, your IQ score, and all the academic success you’ve had. If you really want to be happy, learn to be grateful for everything — the big things, and especially the little things.