First a comment on a small, specific point you made: I have met a large number of VC’s during the last 11 years, and in terms of intelligence and insight I really found them to be all over the map. Some brilliant, wide-ranging thinkers … some narrow-minded morons. Hard to generalize.
Regarding happiness, if you’re not familiar with it you might want to look at the work on flow and optimal experience:
which is likely relevant to why many successful CEO’s would habitually feel happy...
Also, there have been many psychological studies of the impact of wealth on happiness, and one result I remember is that, once a basic level of wealth that avoids profound physical discomfort is achieved, the main impact of wealth on happiness is to DECREASE UNHAPPINESS but not to INCREASE HAPPINESS. (Yes, I know this wording is imprecise … but it is precise in the relevant research papers, which I don’t have at my fingertips right now...)
That is, having a lot of $$ decreases the amount of petty annoyance in your life. But it doesn’t provide higher highs, or significantly increase your overall life-satisfaction. But, having so little $$ that you’re hungry, or cold, etc., obviously does decrease your overall life-satisfaction.
First a comment on a small, specific point you made: I have met a large number of VC’s during the last 11 years, and in terms of intelligence and insight I really found them to be all over the map. Some brilliant, wide-ranging thinkers … some narrow-minded morons. Hard to generalize.
Regarding happiness, if you’re not familiar with it you might want to look at the work on flow and optimal experience:
http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Mihaly-Csikszentmihalyi/dp/0060920432
which is likely relevant to why many successful CEO’s would habitually feel happy...
Also, there have been many psychological studies of the impact of wealth on happiness, and one result I remember is that, once a basic level of wealth that avoids profound physical discomfort is achieved, the main impact of wealth on happiness is to DECREASE UNHAPPINESS but not to INCREASE HAPPINESS. (Yes, I know this wording is imprecise … but it is precise in the relevant research papers, which I don’t have at my fingertips right now...)
That is, having a lot of $$ decreases the amount of petty annoyance in your life. But it doesn’t provide higher highs, or significantly increase your overall life-satisfaction. But, having so little $$ that you’re hungry, or cold, etc., obviously does decrease your overall life-satisfaction.
-- Ben G