Something I've been pondering on for years now is how comfort — in excessive quantities — becomes poisonous.
The idea is not new at all. Epictetus, one of the most famous Stoic philosophers of the ancient times, wrote:
'Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own inner resources. The trails we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.'
Turned around, this claim would state that in absence of difficulties there are no opportunities to develop our strengths.
Which means that comfort makes us weak.
This, but in more details, has been discussed on a podcast I've watched recently, titled 'The Problem With Comfort'. Its guest, Anthony 'Staz' Stazicker, a former Special Boat Service (SBS, a special forces unit inside the UK's Royal Navy) operator, said:
'Discomfort is the tuition fee for competence.'
I absolutely love this expression and I think it is just on point. Hardship is indeed the price you pay to become capable. Physical training, cold, fatigue, mental pressure, responsibility, delayed gratification, and moral consequences are all forms of friction that shape robust people. Without them, you get what Staz calls a 'soft underbelly' in society: people who are easily outraged, who treat words as violence, largely because they have never seen or experienced genuine horror, war, or existential hardship.
People who will not succeed in dealing with any kind of real problems or dilemmas when they appear.
Do not get me wrong: at no point I am advocating that terrible deeds of cruel fate, such as war, are to be pursued or glorified. Nor am I blind to the fact that a lot of people are experiencing, in general or in certain parts of their life, utter discomfort, often due to socio-economic problems that are difficult to overcome on your own.
What I am arguing for is, though, that across all social stratas most societies found ways to create such level of comfort, that due to its effect becomes poisonous. We need movement, we need challenges, we need missions — this is how we stay lean, disciplined, motivated, and adaptable. In the western world, however, a person can be perfectly comfortable even while living on the edge of poverty — social security benefits might be just enough to keep them perfectly sedated, at home in front of the TV set, their food diet not much better than what their brain consumes, but enough to keep them alive and able to vote.
Such level of comfort in return to almost zero effective activity was unimaginable just a couple decades ago.
Now imagine how many weak people it is going to produce.
As in almost all other domains with any sort of dilemmas, I believe we can only start with ourselves. Which is exactly why I am advocating for spotting those kinds of poisonous comfort that makes us lazy and oblivious. Deliberately engineered hardship is the only way to go: train your body hard, challenge yourself intellectually and physically, substitute passive rest with active recovery, avoid overly-excessive ways people make themselves too comfortable (especially if it involves technology and internet).
Creating discomfort is the only tuition to become competent, to respect yourself, and, ultimately, to be there for your dearest ones when they need you.
The idea is not new at all. Epictetus, one of the most famous Stoic philosophers of the ancient times, wrote:
'Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own inner resources. The trails we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.'
Turned around, this claim would state that in absence of difficulties there are no opportunities to develop our strengths.
Which means that comfort makes us weak.
This, but in more details, has been discussed on a podcast I've watched recently, titled 'The Problem With Comfort'. Its guest, Anthony 'Staz' Stazicker, a former Special Boat Service (SBS, a special forces unit inside the UK's Royal Navy) operator, said:
'Discomfort is the tuition fee for competence.'
I absolutely love this expression and I think it is just on point. Hardship is indeed the price you pay to become capable. Physical training, cold, fatigue, mental pressure, responsibility, delayed gratification, and moral consequences are all forms of friction that shape robust people. Without them, you get what Staz calls a 'soft underbelly' in society: people who are easily outraged, who treat words as violence, largely because they have never seen or experienced genuine horror, war, or existential hardship.
People who will not succeed in dealing with any kind of real problems or dilemmas when they appear.
Do not get me wrong: at no point I am advocating that terrible deeds of cruel fate, such as war, are to be pursued or glorified. Nor am I blind to the fact that a lot of people are experiencing, in general or in certain parts of their life, utter discomfort, often due to socio-economic problems that are difficult to overcome on your own.
What I am arguing for is, though, that across all social stratas most societies found ways to create such level of comfort, that due to its effect becomes poisonous. We need movement, we need challenges, we need missions — this is how we stay lean, disciplined, motivated, and adaptable. In the western world, however, a person can be perfectly comfortable even while living on the edge of poverty — social security benefits might be just enough to keep them perfectly sedated, at home in front of the TV set, their food diet not much better than what their brain consumes, but enough to keep them alive and able to vote.
Such level of comfort in return to almost zero effective activity was unimaginable just a couple decades ago.
Now imagine how many weak people it is going to produce.
As in almost all other domains with any sort of dilemmas, I believe we can only start with ourselves. Which is exactly why I am advocating for spotting those kinds of poisonous comfort that makes us lazy and oblivious. Deliberately engineered hardship is the only way to go: train your body hard, challenge yourself intellectually and physically, substitute passive rest with active recovery, avoid overly-excessive ways people make themselves too comfortable (especially if it involves technology and internet).
Creating discomfort is the only tuition to become competent, to respect yourself, and, ultimately, to be there for your dearest ones when they need you.