What are the motivations for improving yourself? At face value, it seems that for everything you do that is better for you, there can be a thousand reasons, different angles, and different ways of doing it.

When did we, collectively, stop doing things for the sake of doing them?

It seems like everything is gamified these days. I touched upon this in my last post, and I'd like to go a bit further here. It seems like we optimize for everything in every way. Why do something if it brings no usefulness, no utility in your life, no supposed good?

I believe that life is made up of balance: for every good there is a bad, for every bad a good. Now, there are different terrains of good and certainly different terrains of bad: we can choose the good and choose the bad. Here's an example: a person who's 100% optimizing their health for the purpose of longevity and the fact that it's "good for you" will not enjoy the simple pleasure of meeting a buddy and having a conversation with a friend at a bar late at night after dinner. They'll never understand letting loose and having a cigar while on vacation, or enjoying a bucket of butter popcorn at the movies. There's a sadness in that, really.

These things, though "bad for you", have a profound impact in the moment. They heighten your experience, and they are there specifically because something else going on in that moment is bigger than that little indulgence.

Published as is.

What are the motivations for improving yourself? At face value, it seems that for everything you do that is better for you, there can be a thousand reasons, different angles, and different ways of doing it.

When did we, collectively, stop doing things for the sake of doing them?

It seems like everything is gamified these days. I touched upon this in my last post, and I'd like to go a bit further here. It seems like we optimize for everything in every way. Why do something if it brings no usefulness, no utility in your life, no supposed good?

I believe that life is made up of balance: for every good there is a bad, for every bad a good. Now, there are different terrains of good and certainly different terrains of bad: we can choose the good and choose the bad. Here's an example: a person who's 100% optimizing their health for the purpose of longevity and the fact that it's "good for you" will not enjoy the simple pleasure of meeting a buddy and having a conversation with a friend at a bar late at night after dinner. They'll never understand letting loose and having a cigar while on vacation, or enjoying a bucket of butter popcorn at the movies. There's a sadness in that, really.

These things, though "bad for you", have a profound impact in the moment. They heighten your experience, and they are there specifically because something else going on in that moment is bigger than that little indulgence.

Published as is.