We have evolved to always live with a certain degree of dissatisfaction, and insecurity, because it’s the mildly dissatisfied and insecure creature that’s going to do most of the work to innovate and survive. We are wired to become dissatisfied with whatever we have and satisfied by only what we do not have. This constant dissatisfaction has kept our species fighting and striving, building and conquering. So no – our own pain and misery aren’t a bug of human evolution; they’re a feature.
– Mark Manson in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
Does this explain why we feel something is missing – when things are going well for us, and why a non-existential threat which makes us struggle makes us happier…
April 14, 2017