Why Finding Pleasure in Life is a Painful Journey | Paul Bloom
Why do people train for a marathon? Listen to sad music? Eat really spicy food? All of these activities induce a painful response, yet they also bring us pleasure. We sometimes set ourselves up for negative experiences because it primes us for positive ones further down the line.
Sometimes we set up negative experiences because it primes us for positive ones. Share on XThere is a balance, a sweet spot if you will, between the amount of pleasure we experience and the suffering that it takes to get us there.
World-renowned psychologist and author Paul Bloom, joins us on this episode to discuss his most recent book The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning. He challenges our definition of a fulfilling life, and why we actually NEED suffering to be part of it.
A fulfilling life involves some experience of frustration, maybe of sadness, anger, disappointment. If you don't have that you're missing out. Share on XWe are so conditioned in our culture to only seek out pleasure that even the notion of reading about suffering was not particularly appealing to us, well to Tim – it turns out Kurt might be somewhat of a benign masochist! But from the get-go, Paul’s compelling narrative convinced us that suffering can be motivating. Listen in and tell us if you think there is a sweet spot, and then reach out to us on email, on Twitter or write us a quick review about the show. Thanks!
Topics
(4:40) Welcome and speed round questions.
(7:24) Why do we choose suffering?
(11:24) Do we really only seek pleasure?
(13:40) We often have mistaken ideas about what we want.
(16:16) Looking beyond happiness; what we actually pursue for a meaningful life.
(22:24) How can suffering help pleasure?
(24:59) How being in a state of flow explains the sweet spot.
(28:27) Why are people driven to climb Everest?
(32:32) What are the unpleasant sensations that people do not pursue?
(34:37) Pain then pleasure or pleasure then pain?
(36:13) The effect of the peak-end rule.
(38:40) Why do we want to listen to sad music?
(45:11) Grooving Session discussing how Paul’s work can improve our lives.
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AIRDATE: January 23, 2022 EPISODE 274
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Why Finding Pleasure in Life is a Painful Journey | Paul Bloom
Featured Guest
Paul Bloom
Featured Artists
Adele “Someone Like You”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0
Alice Cooper “Poison”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq4j1LtCdww
Pink Floyd “On The Turning Away”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojf18wT_Xtk
The Proclaimers “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”
Joan Armatrading “Consequences”
LINKS
“The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning” by Paul Bloom: https://amzn.to/3Kmpweh
Shaquille O’Neal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaquille_O%27Neal
“Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind” by Wilson et al (2014): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed
Paul Rozin: https://web.sas.upenn.edu/rozin/
“Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: https://amzn.to/3qyLRgB
“A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and meaning” by Oishi and Westage (2021): https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-74886-001
“Anticipation and the valuation of delayed consumption.” by George Loewenstein (1987): https://www.jstor.org/stable/2232929
Episode 67, George Loewenstein: On a Functional Theory of Boredom: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/george-loewenstein-on-a-functional-theory-of-boredom/
“When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End” by Kahneman et al (1993): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00589.x
Jeremy Bentham: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
Richard Tedeschi, The Science of Post-Traumatic Growth: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/podcast/richard-tedeschi-the-science-of-post-traumatic-growth/
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran: https://amzn.to/329fN9O
Episode 207, Jonathan Mann: Is it Possible to Design an Experience? https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/jonathan-mann-is-it-possible-to-design-an-experience/