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Comment by deltaonefour | Hacker News Reader

You don't understand science. And you did not read my sentences carefully.

In science nothing can be proved. But all it takes.is one data point to disprove something.

I hypothesize that all zebras have black and white stripes. This hypothesis can never be proved no matter how many zebras we observe. But all it takes is the observation of one zebra with purple stripes to disprove the entire statement.

As einstein once said no amount of experimentation can prove him right, but all it takes is one experiment to prove him wrong.

That being said. The hypothesis here is that being smart makes you happy. To disprove this statement all you need is one instance of a person who is smart and not happy. That's it. Keep in mind I never said being smart makes you unhappy.

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> one instance of a person who is smart and not happy

This premise does not lead to this conclusion:

> Stupid people are happier then smart people.

Which is your first sentence and seemingly the thesis of the first comment.

> Kids are generally stupider than adults.

Yes, granted this may be true but my point is there are also a lot of differences between kids and adults independent of intelligence. Ones that can quite obviously affect happiness. Such as, say, social pressure or other obligations.

I can rewrite your first comment as: "Loners are happier than social people. Look at kids. Kids have less social obligations than adults. They're also happier. So if anything that proves that social obligations don't make you happy and it hints at the possibility that not having social obligations actually makes you happy."

and this is an equally valid conclusion as the one you came up with (thus both are kind of meaningless).

>I can rewrite your first comment as: "Loners are happier than social people. Look at kids. Kids have less social obligations than adults. They're also happier. So if anything that proves that social obligations don't make you happy and it hints at the possibility that not having social obligations actually makes you happy."

You actually can't.... You really need to reread what I am writing because you are missing the point.

>Yes, granted this may be true but my point is there are also a lot of differences between kids and adults independent of intelligence.

If you read what I wrote ^^ the above is LITERALLY what I am saying. I am saying that it is COULD BE an independent variable. That is LITERALLY the thesis here. This is what I mean by you should read what I wrote very carefully because you're not.

>> one instance of a person who is smart and not happy >This premise does not lead to this conclusion: >> Stupid people are happier then smart people. >Which is your first sentence and seemingly the thesis of the first comment.

It does. Read carefully. Did I write all stupid people are happier than smart people? No.

I replied to you because your initial reply was in complete agreement with what I am saying but you just didn't realize it.

nor did I say being smart prevents you from being happy.

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