Ah, the gift that gives on giving! In re-reading the article on creative problem-solving I discussed in my last post, I realized there was another important lesson it pointed to, in terms of taking the road less mapped.
Yes, it’s true, we sometimes “see” our best solutions when our minds are in a more playful or distracted state. But the article also talked about the appeal of puzzles in general. Dr. Marcel Danesi, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto and the author of “The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life” attributes the allure of puzzles to the fact that solving them is “all about you, using your own mind, without any method or schema, to restore order from chaos.”
Dr. Danesi was talking about manufactured challenges like crossword puzzles and Sudoku. But he could just as easily have been describing the allure of uncharted adventure or entrepreneurship. To be an entrepreneur or adventurer, you stand at the brink of an unknown territory. And figuring out how to navigate that territory it’s all about you … using your mind to restore order from the chaos of the unknown.
And, not surprisingly, our brains release a reward of dopamine when we actually come up with that order and solution.
So, humans like solving puzzles, and nothing is as puzzling as an unmapped course. Which means that on some very fundamental level, we’re really hard-wired to be adventurers. Some people just do their adventuring on paper, that’s all.
What’s more, people with positive attitudes do better at solving those puzzles. (See my last post for discussion on this point.) Which is why I think I like hanging out with entrepreneurs and adventurers so much. They are inherently positive and optimistic. Now, I’m not entirely sure whether that optimism is really inherent, as in, hard-wired in them, or whether it comes from experience; of learning they can create order out of chaos and reaping all the dopamine rewards that come from that. It’s probably a mix.
But if solving the puzzle of adventure and entrepreneurial efforts is inherently satisfying and dopamine-releasing … which is to say, makes us happy … then more of us should screw up our courage and attempt it. Not only for the momentary happiness a solution brings us, but because another article I came across recently concluded that optimism (which success at puzzle-solving helps engender) can make you live longer.
In an article earlier this fall that analyzed the longevity of centenarians (people who’ve lived to be 100 years old), New York Times health writer Jane Brody reported on several interesting research findings. A study of centenarians in Sardinia, for example, found that they were less likely to be depressed than the average 60-year-old. And Dr. Hilary A. Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that among 97,000 aging women she followed for eight years, those deemed “optimistic” were “significantly less likely to die from heart disease and all causes than were pessimistic women.” The optimists were also less likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol, although it wasn’t clear whether the optimism itself was the cause, or whether their optimistic attitudes led them to take better care of their bodies.
So optimism is a good thing. Again, I’m not sure whether optimism makes a person take on adventure, or whether adventure, successfully undertaken, makes a person more optimistic. If pressed, I’d answer yes to both. As Shakespeare said, “assume a virtue if you have it not … for use almost can change the stamp of nature.”
It might even make you live longer.
I think you are in the right area, but not looking at all of the facets of the question as posed. Generally, happy people are more healthy from cradle to grave. Reactive intelligence is used in puzzle and problem solving in how we react to a new problem, however adaptive intelligence is the process of adapting to new situations. You can react well, but be unhappy in the new paradigm. Adapting well is the key to long term growth and happiness. The studies that you mention do not seem to mention how well the centenarians are adapted, or how well they adapted to changing life paradigms.
If you go to a zoo, sit outside the ape cage/display. Watch for those who are content to sit placidly and watch and for those who flit about looking for the next bit of excitement. The latter may react intelligently, but the former is adapting. Hopefully that illustrates what I mean. Don’t look for the meaning of life, look at ‘your’ life for meaning.