Unironically, yes. Multiple studies dating back years have found a link between high intelligence and various mental health issues.
There was one particular paper I read about a decade ago, where researchers surveyed a bunch of collage students to find demographic trends based on their preferred operating system. From what I recall, the demographics of Windows users were not too far off from those of the university as whole, and Mac users were similar, aside from women being significantly over-represented. Linux users on the other hand, were almost all men, and nearly every mental health issue imaginable was over-represented by a huge margin.
As a CS dude who uses Linux and is around way too many people who seem like they genuinely are in need of some therapy on a daily basis, this entirely checks out, tbh.
I suspect high intelligence might be a short-term species-level adaptation to existential threats that would otherwise not be expressed nearly as often in healthy populations. There are smart people, and then there are people who can’t help but be neurotically fixated on problem-solving - and this latter group often suffers through their lives due to how different their experiences are from the norm. If some variation of this describes reality, then intelligence and mental health issues (or at least the burden of neurodivergency) may be fundamentally inseparable.
Ninja edit: But the reverse doesn’t seem to be true - one can suffer from mental illness due a variety of factors, including ones that we can (theoretically) actively and competently manage, like oppression and inequality.
Well there’s a million ways you can interpret that data. Apple usually makes very opinionated stuff (“this is how it works and this is how you’re going to use it”). Autistic folks tend to do have big issues with that sort of stuff, so it’s only natural they’ll gravitate to something else where they can use it whoever they feel is better.
And women in general have been pushed away from IT for a few decades due to how they’re treated in those groups, so it’s only natural they’ll be underrepresented among Linux users.
Unironically, yes. Multiple studies dating back years have found a link between high intelligence and various mental health issues.
There was one particular paper I read about a decade ago, where researchers surveyed a bunch of collage students to find demographic trends based on their preferred operating system. From what I recall, the demographics of Windows users were not too far off from those of the university as whole, and Mac users were similar, aside from women being significantly over-represented. Linux users on the other hand, were almost all men, and nearly every mental health issue imaginable was over-represented by a huge margin.
That’s funny, but I’m betting my nutsack that you just made that up, or it’s copy pasta.
As a CS dude who uses Linux and is around way too many people who seem like they genuinely are in need of some therapy on a daily basis, this entirely checks out, tbh.
I’m now mildly worried for my own mental state
It’s ok amigo, from this one comment I’ve read of yours you seem like you are just fine
I use Linux, and my wife’s head in the freezer says I’m perfectly sane.
deleted by creator
I suspect high intelligence might be a short-term species-level adaptation to existential threats that would otherwise not be expressed nearly as often in healthy populations. There are smart people, and then there are people who can’t help but be neurotically fixated on problem-solving - and this latter group often suffers through their lives due to how different their experiences are from the norm. If some variation of this describes reality, then intelligence and mental health issues (or at least the burden of neurodivergency) may be fundamentally inseparable.
Ninja edit: But the reverse doesn’t seem to be true - one can suffer from mental illness due a variety of factors, including ones that we can (theoretically) actively and competently manage, like oppression and inequality.
Well there’s a million ways you can interpret that data. Apple usually makes very opinionated stuff (“this is how it works and this is how you’re going to use it”). Autistic folks tend to do have big issues with that sort of stuff, so it’s only natural they’ll gravitate to something else where they can use it whoever they feel is better.
And women in general have been pushed away from IT for a few decades due to how they’re treated in those groups, so it’s only natural they’ll be underrepresented among Linux users.