I think there’s another aspect that you haven’t mentioned.
I’ve found that when I’ve overburdened myself with work, I tend to cope through copious amounts of caffeine. Over time, this habit limits my overall productivity, and forces me to undergo painful withdrawal symptoms to return to normal. When someone turns to alcoholism to escape the stress in their life, they limit the amount of productive time they can spend solving the problems that lead to their stress. The same goes for many ultimately destructive habits: binge eating, gambling, smoking, memes (yeah, they do decrease productivity), television, video games, violence, promiscuity, procrastination, and so many others.
I’m an undergraduate student, and the thing I’ve noticed about my unsuccessful friends is that pretty much all of them fell pray to one or several of the above and could not put them down. Habits that develop in the sake of escaping immediate pain ultimately produce more pain.
However, if you don’t have any of these habits, I’ve found that the process of learning can be quite fun.
So, I suppose I agree with you, in a roundabout way. The relatively pain-free lifestyle is better, but I think it’s a result of knowing how to spend your time on things that don’t immediately feel good and less about being inclined to appear as though you suffer.
I think there’s another aspect that you haven’t mentioned.
I’ve found that when I’ve overburdened myself with work, I tend to cope through copious amounts of caffeine. Over time, this habit limits my overall productivity, and forces me to undergo painful withdrawal symptoms to return to normal. When someone turns to alcoholism to escape the stress in their life, they limit the amount of productive time they can spend solving the problems that lead to their stress. The same goes for many ultimately destructive habits: binge eating, gambling, smoking, memes (yeah, they do decrease productivity), television, video games, violence, promiscuity, procrastination, and so many others.
I’m an undergraduate student, and the thing I’ve noticed about my unsuccessful friends is that pretty much all of them fell pray to one or several of the above and could not put them down. Habits that develop in the sake of escaping immediate pain ultimately produce more pain.
However, if you don’t have any of these habits, I’ve found that the process of learning can be quite fun.
So, I suppose I agree with you, in a roundabout way. The relatively pain-free lifestyle is better, but I think it’s a result of knowing how to spend your time on things that don’t immediately feel good and less about being inclined to appear as though you suffer.