Emotions are a proxy that natural selection created, so we don't to do these kinds of calculations. There's a great colt by william james s teono stime at hunger. Hesas sensible enough hungers o alv to motivate us to eat food. But nobody walks into a night club sayef, you're single, with calipers going, ok, your waist hip ratios, point, six, seven. You just look around and go, wow. I find that attractive. Thats what i'm interested in. It's just an emotion.
We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. We poke at sores, eat spicy foods, immerse ourselves in hot baths, run marathons. Some of us even seek out pain and humiliation in sexual role-play. Why do we so often seek out physical pain and emotional turmoil? Where do these seemingly perverse appetites come from? In his latest book, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning, Bloom aims to understand how people find meaning in their lives, and, moreover, to explore what he calls, “the sweet spot” — the proper balance between pleasure and suffering. As one of the world’s leading psychologists, drawing on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science, Bloom shows how the right kind of suffering sets the stage for enhanced pleasure.