The Sweet Spot- The Pleasures of Suffering and Search for Meaning

[mountainFrugal]

https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Spot-Pleas ... 0062910566

Interesting pop-psych/pop-philosophy read. Author goes into various thought experiments, anecdotes, and philosophy around "chosen suffering" and how that might be part of the "good life" broadly defined. He very clearly differentiates between un-choosen suffering brought on by poverty, health, etc. and that is not what he is exploring. Chosen suffering included things like mountain climbing, child raising, etc. that may be uncomfortable in the moment to moment, but overall *can* add to your overall life satisfaction depending your interests, personality, etc. He also discusses the limitations of various studies classified within the "happiness" literature. I found these caveats and newer nuanced findings more realistic. Worth a read. I will revisit this book again in the future to see how it holds up.

ETA: Paul Bloom has been making the podcast rounds so that might be a good way to see if you are interested in this book based on your favorite podcast host's questions.

[RoamingFrancis]

One of the lessons I've learned from Vipassana is that voluntarily sitting with discomfort/pain and practicing equanimity with it makes it easier to do the same in involuntarily situations. There's a saying I like - "You can choose to go to the monastery, but sooner or later, the monastery is coming to you."

[Sclass]

I like to think of the brain and body as an adaptive analog feedback control system.

It may need to swing between bounds periodically to set its control parameters to obtain optimal stability. Insulin response, heart rate, blood pressure and happiness seem to operate this way.

Reminds me to put a little randomness in my life tomorrow. I mean today. I’m headed out to do a community service project a friend is forcing me into. Safe yet probably it’ll contain some unpleasant surprises. I’ll likely return home tonight to my shower and warm bed and be left with a satisfying memory of the event.

[fingeek]

As Jordan Peterson and Vic Strecher say: We humans are designed to take a load. It is this load/challenge that ultimately gives us meaning in life - exactly that "chosen suffering" you note. But also from A Man's Search For Meaning, that there comes a lot of meaning from events outside of our control too - there is both no meaning and all meaning in everything that happens to us .

Secondly, from struggle/challenge/pain/change/whatever comes growth - without seasonality on earth, life wouldn't exist and thrive. Definitely +1 to adding some randomness into the daily (as much as it causes pain for us INTJs hah).

(Thanks for the book recommendation!)

[mountainFrugal]

The three types of fun:
https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/fun-scale

Type 1- YEAH! the whole time
Type 2- NO! during...YEAH! in retrospect
Type 3- NO! during...Hell NO! in retrospect