Why read The Sweet Spot?

Book cover of The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning

Book description

“This book will challenge you to rethink your vision of a good life. With sharp insights and lucid prose, Paul Bloom makes a captivating case that pain and suffering are essential to happiness. It’s an exhilarating antidote to toxic positivity.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think…

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Self-help

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Sweet Spot as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Dimitris Xygalatas

Author

This book relates to a lot of what I’ve learned in my own research about rituals. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it argues that we humans are not hedonists by nature. Yes, we desire comfort and we pursue all kinds of pleasures. But we also often embrace struggle, effort, and even fear and pain, and those are in fact the things that make our lives truly meaningful. From watching horror films and climbing mountains to raising children and performing painful rituals, Paul Bloom argues that, in the right context, suffering can be part of a life well-lived.

From Dimitris' list on the things that make us human.