insight (noun) : in psychiatry, one's awareness and understanding of the origins and meaning of one's attitudes, feelings, and behavior, and of one's disturbing symptoms
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An old friend once asked me if I could choose either to be a genius but very physically ugly (hideous even), or dumb-as-a-doornail but very physically beautiful, which would I choose? (You have to ignore all the politically correct talk around "what is beautiful" and go with the looks on the front covers of magazines on this one.)
Easy answer, right? Beautiful but incredibly stupid. Why? I'd be so stupid that I wouldn't know how dumb I was (and wouldn't care), and I'd be so beautiful that everything would be taken care of for me. Beauty beats brains in this world. (Especially for a woman, but that's another blog post).
And what makes it worse for the geniuses is that they know this to be true. They understand that they are brilliant and that it doesn't matter, because the beautiful stupid people will make just as much money doing much less work (if they have to work at all). The beautiful and stupid people are blissful in their ignorance and live longer, happier lives. The super smart and ugly people are tormented in their knowledge and die young, often at their own hands.
Meaning that sometimes, insight isn't much fun.
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