Ascetic Adaptation

[workathome]

It seems that materialism reflects other addictions. Each addition provides a joy, but before long the individual reverts back to the mean. Our culture doesn't deter this harmful addiction, but quite the opposite - it has brought out a wide array of reinforcement mechanisms to encourage, even force, this addiction in the populace.

A lot of this seems somehow habitual. As in, some kind of automatic adaption to the present state. Like if you grew up rich, you probably automatically expect a rich lifestyle.

[jacob]

By considering both sides of the adaption, it also explains why the crowbar method can be preferable to "baby-steps".

Which feels better?

Dialing back a hedonically adaption using baby steps---usually whining about sacrifice all the way.
Going all out, extreme, and then backing off---deriving pleasure from backing off the extreme point.

How would you rather have a bad tooth pulled? Baby steps or with a crow bar?

PS: Am I the only one who deliberately gets off coffee just to get the caffeinated pleasure of the first cup after two weeks of abstinence?

[BeyondtheWrap]

Something doesn't seem right about that definition. Do we just go back to what we were? Or do we realize that we didn't have it so bad in the first place? Or after having a few experiences of wonderful highs and terrible lows, do we realize the "creamy middle" is a nice, stable place to be?

I'm not convinced. How does that jive with ideas like affluenza and lifestyle creep?

If you're unhappy with your life, then you decide to inflate your lifestyle by buying a bunch of stuff/experiences/comforts, you will initially feel a boost of happiness, then you will go back to feeling unhappy (that's your set-point) after the high wears off. You now have all this extra stuff, but you still don't feel happy because you're just an unhappy person. And the cycle starts again.

For ERE, we realize that if we're already happy, we can be just as happy with less stuff. Since the two material levels are emotionally neutral, we choose the one that is cheaper and results in faster retirement.

[Ego]

Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience
Journal of Consumer Research

PDF: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/advance-ar ... 15/6171148

Expertise provides numerous benefits. Experts process information more efficiently, remember information better, and often make better decisions. Consumers pursue expertise in domains they love and chase experiences that make them feel something. Yet, might becoming an expert carry a cost for these very feelings? Across more than 700,000 consumers and 6 million observations, developing expertise in a hedonic domain predicts consumers becoming more emotionally numb – i.e., having less intense emotion in response to their experiences. This numbness occurs across a range of domains – movies, photography, wine, and beer – and across diverse measures of emotion and expertise. It occurs in cross-sectional real-world data with certified experts, and in longitudinal real-world data that follows consumers over time and traces their emotional trajectories as they accrue expertise. Further, this numbness can be explained by the cognitive structure experts develop and apply within a domain. Experimentally inducing cognitive structure led novice consumers to experience greater numbness. However, shifting experts away from using their cognitive structure restored their experience of emotion. Thus, although consumers actively pursue expertise in domains that bring them pleasure, the present work is the first to show that this pursuit can come with a hedonic cost.

"A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

[theanimal]

Very interesting! I wonder how this ties in with those who are continually learning new things as they age, strengthening their neurons. Do they perceive a richer experience than the norm?

[chenda]

PS: Am I the only one who deliberately gets off coffee just to get the caffeinated pleasure of the first cup after two weeks of abstinence?

Definitely not. I get massive diminishing returns after the first cup but my weakness for the second creates overexposure. I find after a few days off I recalibrate. Same with alcohol and ASMR.

[Ego]

Ascetic adaptation is necessary because we are constantly bombarded with opportunities for hedonic adaptation. It’s like trying to tread water in a strong current—you have to swim the other direction just to stand still.

Anna Lembke talks about this exact point in the Hidden Brain podcast The Path to Enough
https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-path-to-enough/

TLDL: Recalibrating our tolerance for psychological and physiological hormesis allows us to deal with the overwhelming abundance.

[AxelHeyst]

Walking backwards on the hedonic treadmill... I was looking for the term ascetic adaptation a few days ago and couldn't come up with it. This thread and the links are great.

My shower is a 10L dromedary I hang on a string on the east facade of my studio. It feels really normal, although it was uncomfortable the first few times I used it. Now it's just... how I get the dirt off.

But when I take a shower in a normal shower... whoa! What wonder! What luxury! It's a literally remarkable experience.

[zbigi]

Interestingly, some things seem easier to adapt to than others. For example, writers and philosophers of the past didn't complain about having to go to the toilet outside, taking baths in cold water or having to keep a fire going through entire winter. They took it for granted and didn't perceive it as a burden. (However, some probably had servants to help with those incoveniences). But, they did complain about city noise making it hard for them to think.

[Ego]

My shower is a 10L dromedary I hang on a string on the east facade of my studio. It feels really normal, although it was uncomfortable the first few times I used it. Now it's just... how I get the dirt off.

But when I take a shower in a normal shower... whoa! What wonder! What luxury! It's a literally remarkable experience.

But, they did complain about city noise making it hard for them to think.

I've mentioned before how my father, who grew up in one of the loudest, most chaotic parts of the city, was unable to sleep when he was away from the background noise. He would say it was too quiet.

I often wonder how long it takes to get to that point. Does it have to be something one grows with, or can it be embedded later in life? @AH, could you imagine a future-you who learned to dislike the experience of showering in a normal shower?

[jacob]

I often wonder how long it takes to get to that point. Does it have to be something one grows with, or can it be embedded later in life? @AH, could you imagine a future-you who learned to dislike the experience of showering in a normal shower?

About a month-ish.

I had the same experience with food back in the lentil days. I got the inspiration from the Affluenza book in which someone went to Nepal and ate nothing but rice three times a day for a month and eventually normalized it. Hedonic adaption also works the other way around. As a result, any kind of different food, including previously mundane things, felt like a treat/luxury/etc.

I think it's good to "oscillate" ones "hedonic expectation" levels rather than continuously push them in the "more wants more" direction. The effect is mostly of increasing the range that one can appreciate. The only change that has resulted in a permanent dislike is anticonsumerism. I am now unable to appreciate the "shopping"-experience. People often presume it's because I'm stingy but even if you gave me the money to spend in a store, I would find it really difficult to do so. One of the worst presents to receive is a gift card.

As such, I think these kinds of more permanent changes are due to a shift in the deeper---more philosophical---structures of one's value-set.

[AxelHeyst]

@AH, could you imagine a future-you who learned to dislike the experience of showering in a normal shower?

Not in that way, although I could see getting more grouchy about them due to philosophical values like Jacob mentioned. The infrastructure resource footprint and operational 'waste' of normal showers already mildly annoys me, which detracts from the pure hedonic enjoyment of infinite pressurized water. I feel similarly about flush toilets in drylands and poorly insulated buildings in extreme climates.

Tangentially, there are objectively nice things about outdoor showering that a normal shower doesn't have. The views, namely. I actually feel mildly claustrophobic in normal showers ("I'm supposed to step inside this small coffin-sized closet for five minutes? ehh....."). Being naked outside is really enjoyable once the mild fear of being spotted wears off, and so I sometimes feel like I'm 'wasting' naked time indoors.

[SouthernAlchemy]

The views, namely

On a recent hike on the top of a particularly majestic mountain, DD says 'I wish I had to poop.' Huh? 'This would be a great place to take care of business and contemplate all this.' And then DS chimes in about some great outdoor poop locations he's experienced and we go down a strange rabbit hole for a little while. At least DW was not within earshot.

I guess the kids are alright.

[AxelHeyst]

Hah! Oh I didn't think about it but your kids are right. Pooping outdoors is *way better* than pooping indoors. Some of my fondest memories are epic poop spots... this one time on the mesa south of Santa Fe during a lightning storm, for example...

[Jean]

do you use a wag bag? They start to get compulsory for very popular hiking spot.

[AxelHeyst]

My daily facilities is my compost toilet, which is set up on the other side of a juniper bush, so I get the outdoor experience without the plastic bag experience. (The abovementioned event outside of Santa Fe was a doorless pit outhouse at an offgrid rental.)

I use wag bags when camping in popular spots, but I rarely am in popular spots. Otherwise well-built catholes does the trick.