Avoiding Problems

“If, on the other hand, [the human animal] lacks objects of willing, because it is at once deprived of them again by too easy a satisfaction, a fearful emptiness and boredom comes over it; in other words, its being and its existence become an intolerable burden for it. Hence it swings like a pendulum to and fro between pain and boredom.” But the no

Living in a world with infinite distractions and interesting goals can make it impossible to stop moving forward. Yet more than ever this is exactly what we crave, and in those first few months in Taipei, I started to see the wisdom in embracing a state of non‑doing.

Looking back, what chunks of time feel satisfying and seem to be more important as time progresses? What am I drawn to do, right now? What am I doing already that feels good? At the end of my life, what will I definitely not regret having done?

Flourishing is both quantitatively and qualitatively different from our day-to-day pleasures and pains. Quantitatively different because purpose, meaning, dignity, and our sense of self are more important to our overall well-being than enjoying a good meal or getting a flat tire—pleasures and pains whose impacts are relatively small. But the other