I’m not sure why you’re dismissing building character as an explanation. Something builds character if it helps a person develop virtues such as patience, perseverance, humility, temperance, etc. Committing to a difficult activity can obviously do this, perhaps more so if it is not instrumental. There’s also the sense in which an activity can be a test of character, so that completing it reveals (to oneself and others) virtues (or room for improvement). I find “direct hedonic value” far more suspicious, since most “rewarding” activities offer nothing of the sort (the pleasure of a difficult activity is usually delayed and the activity itself may be wholly negative), and those that do are usually considered addictions/vices/etc. Hedonic reward also has only a tenuous connection to an activity being considered “interesting”; in fact, probably only boredom can stop an activity from being interesting and I’m not even sure about that (in many endurance sports the tedium is part of the challenge).
I’m not sure why you’re dismissing building character as an explanation.
Perhaps because the character could be built just as well doing something else, equally difficult but more important? It’s not just a dilemma between doing a character-building thing and slacking off. It’s also why you chose this specific character-building thing instead of another.
It’s not just a choice between playing piano and watching TV, but also between playing piano and learning programming or building a startup. Character building answers only the first part of the question.
I’m not sure why you’re dismissing building character as an explanation. Something builds character if it helps a person develop virtues such as patience, perseverance, humility, temperance, etc. Committing to a difficult activity can obviously do this, perhaps more so if it is not instrumental. There’s also the sense in which an activity can be a test of character, so that completing it reveals (to oneself and others) virtues (or room for improvement). I find “direct hedonic value” far more suspicious, since most “rewarding” activities offer nothing of the sort (the pleasure of a difficult activity is usually delayed and the activity itself may be wholly negative), and those that do are usually considered addictions/vices/etc. Hedonic reward also has only a tenuous connection to an activity being considered “interesting”; in fact, probably only boredom can stop an activity from being interesting and I’m not even sure about that (in many endurance sports the tedium is part of the challenge).
Perhaps because the character could be built just as well doing something else, equally difficult but more important? It’s not just a dilemma between doing a character-building thing and slacking off. It’s also why you chose this specific character-building thing instead of another.
It’s not just a choice between playing piano and watching TV, but also between playing piano and learning programming or building a startup. Character building answers only the first part of the question.
But only if you are aware of this option. Beside simply being unknown other tasks may look (or be rationalized to) to be out of your range.