Alain De Botton - Are Intelligent People More Lonely?

I read an article once in the Guardian which said that a lot of intelligent people often feel lonely because they don't find the same things interesting as other people do.

In another article I once read, there were these exceptionally intelligent people who were members of Menser, who said they were not intellectuals and just enjoyed the ordinary things in life like everyone else

 When Alain De Botton posits are intelligent people more lonely, he doesn't mean those who just score high in IQ, he means people who have a high emotional intelligence? I guess he means people who are thinkers, i.e, intellectuals. That can be a lonely pursuit.

It sounds like a hugely arrogant and self-serving suggestion to imply that cleverness might lead you to loneliness. But if you define cleverness in a selective (and modest) way, there may truly be an aspect whereby it can lead to a certain isolation.


When I split up from a long term relationship years ago I had to do out nightclubing again, but I didn't fit in there. Micky Flanagan doesn't like nightclubs either.

The Out Out Sketch.