Approaching what? Oh these pick-up ideas that poison the minds of the young and impressionable!

You can't work on the approaching because that's not the root of the problem.

It's like this - some people form groups based on chit chat and hanging together. It usually involves alcohol and hooking up, that's kinda the point of it all. And what keeps it going is the never-ending gossip surrounding who did what with whom. That's late highshcool, college/uni and a few years afterwards for some folks.

People who are more intellectually inclined tend to not be a part of those groups because they're 'boring' - which's another way of saying you can't relate to them and they can't relate to you. You're not 'connecting'.

Here's the crucial element - smart people relate based on doing things that take skill, average folks relate based on liking same music, same clothes, etc.

Once you're good at something average people want to be good at - they'll put up with your inability to relate to them based on 'boring' things. You'll be this 'Steve Jobs'-like weird-o they'll come to appreciate. In turn, when they like you, you'll get to have sex with them and stuff like that, and YOU will learn that the stuff you couldn't relate to them about, is not so bad after all. It just wasn't intuitive for you. Once you're good at making women (or men if you're a woman) happy, you all of a sudden have this superpower that everybody wants.

So it's this self perpetuating cycle but you gotta get good at something that is going to give you social points, so that you can catch up on what being 'cool' is all about.

Some of those things are being in a good band, dancing, comedy, sports etc. Nobody cares that you know how to install Linux, but if you can get up and sing at Karaoke night and get a standing ovation, all of a sudden you're a little rockstar.

Isn't this (connecting with average people) what adults throughout the world are doing already? The same adults who, according to this report, are unhappy compared to children? What's the solution to all of this if such a popular lifestyle advice fails to deliver the results? Should smart people rinse and repeat the popular advice that is known to fail anyway? Why doesn't anyone question why personal well-being has to be dependent on validation from other souls in the first place?

Try travel, especially weirder types like long distance cycle-touring or sailing. This way you get new society, new people, new environment, and exercise and a sense of adventure to boot... and these often appeal to nerdier types because of the system / self-reliance element and the freedom to escape annoying environments.