Again and again the great commanders taking over a new army impose new high standards of discipline, cleanliness, hygiene, fortifications, regular drills, immaculate weapons cleaning, and the same is true for sailors on board ship, when there is not a lot for high energy young men to do.
William Blake writes about seeing the universe in a grain of sand, and meaning can be found in meticulous self-discipline and attention to detail and the self-confidence they generate, the knowledge you’re ready for action, whenever the opportunity may come.
Have you read any of Plutarch’s Lives? You’d find the great commanders worthwhile: Lysander, Sulla, Sertorious.
This is dialed in, Chris. The task is all. And I love Plutarch, I've read about half of his lives. My favorite is still Coriolanus, and it is also my favorite Shakespeare play. Sort of off subject, but he would be the character who embodies all of my worst traits. Plutarch's ability to hone in on what matters when it comes to character, good and bad, is a gift.
I haven’t read Plutarch’s Coriolanus and it’s been decades since I’ve read Shakespeare’s blood and guts play about Coriolanus, but now that I know what they mean to you I’ll go back and read them.
I’m leaving tomorrow to attend this retreat, it’s the sort of experience you’d find interesting too, I’m sure: https://greece.costofglory.com/
“Primal Hardship” and “task” clarifies something similar that I see. We have been convinced that ease and happiness are the goals in life. However, I think hardship, pain, suffering, and the overcoming of limitations is the real state in life. Think about the success of a professional sports team. If their singular goal is to win a championship, then they will probably fail. If their goal is maximized their capacity to overcome their limitations of time, talent, background, and relationships, they create a dynasty and have a hall of fame career. In effect, trust the work, not the outcome.
It is a complete shift in mentality. I am genuinely curious at what point, maybe which decade, America shifted from finding meaning in the task and expecting everything to be endlessly blissful happiness. It would be a great study. I appreciate the thoughts, Ed.
I think it’s not the Task, it’s The tasks. It’s relatively easy to find meaning in a Task, but I think it’s wrapping up your entire life and having the majority of your tasks have meaning. I doubt anyone ever is not burdened occasionally with meaningless tasks. I haven’t given it much thought, it’s hard to think at my age, but there were a lot less opportunities in our parents times and therefore focus was spread across many fewer opportunities/tasks/jobs. Hell every time we pick up our smart phones, I hate the term, we are presented with hundreds if not, thousands of tasks that we mindlessly scroll through. I know I’ve lied to myself thinking oh I’m learning something here. I’m expanding my knowledge, whereas all I’m really doing is meaningless tasks and wasting my time. it would be a lot more useful for me to practice my Burpee‘s, or see how long my smart phone survives in my Vitamix.
I like this Vitamix experiment. Every now and then I feel the need to demolish an electronic device, usually a laptop. It is a way of showing a primate-like power over this inanimate object. The more Stoic minded would say anger and physical destruction of a material object is foolish, and yet my experiences demonstrate otherwise—there is something simple, primal, and ancient to it.
Your point about tasks is well received. Knowing when to say No is crucial, especially when looked at over the course of a lifetime.
Thank you, Marshall, these are great thoughts to play with.
One thought on meaning I've been playing with, which I believe underpins this sense of meaninglessness that's plaguing so many, is reframing what "should" be. I think many people reach meaninglessness through the mentality of: "this shouldn't be this hard" or "this should be easier." Then they eventually feel hopeless.
The alternative is acceptance: "This is hard." Yes, you will struggle, fail, and keep going. Somewhere along the way, people have been taught to believe things shouldn't be hard.
This is spot on. It "should" exactly "what it is." All that should be anything is how we respond to it and regulate our expectations. I dig this nuance.
I have been blessed with thoughtful and reflective readers. It is more than I deserve. I like your distinction. Hope is a condition I've spent very little time thinking about and need to mull over a bit more.
Primal Hardship, a compelling idea. You're seeking the sweet spot of stress or healthy stress - hormesis. Zeroing in on your ZPD or zone of proximal development as a similar idea. Flow states are found when working at the edges of our competence, not too hard and not too easy. It feels good to be fully focused on something. So, too, perhaps, with stress. In times of ease and dis-ease seek to focus fully on something productive. All to get outside the dread inside our own head and focus on something constructive instead.
I'm here for it. An idea that is core to my book is not just immersing ourselves in the task, but the more difficult part ahead of time—being comfortable with that destructive potential inside. I have always been fascinated by introspection, questioning, peering the "abyss" as Nietzsche would say. I appreciate the thinking material, Ben.
It's the difference between the question, "Why bother?" and "What can I do *right now*?"
Both meaninglessness and despair are tied to the first question. The second question suspends the first in the same way that faith suspends questions about the future and how things could possibly work out.
With how little I believe in the world and how meaningless I take most modern work to be, there have been countless times that I've been unemployed or otherwise broke, not knowing how anything could come together in the coming days or weeks...but that never meant I couldn't go to the gym, play with my dog, sit down and write, etc. Indeed, if the daunting things and questions are up in the air, you may as well find something else to do while waiting for them to settle.
Beautiful comment. Have you read Eric Hoffer? Some of your thoughts and deductions are areas he played quite a bit. The True Believer is more intense and focused, but the Ordeal of Change, The Temper of Our Time, and others are deeply existential and very working man / commonsensical. You might dig it.
I haven't, no. I'd kinda given up on reading 20th century philosophy. Heidegger and Dreyfus and Dreyfus’ students were all fruitful, but still seemed divorced from the real world. That was always my issue with academia.
I see that Hoffer was a longshoreman, though. Taught as an adjunct but that's it. A thinker, but on the ground instead of way up in the Ivory Tower. Once I get my feet properly planted and books are a viable expense again, I'll order a couple of his books.
I highly recommend, being familiar with some of your writing. He was poor, homeless, a migrant worker, then a longshoreman. The entirety of his philosophy is unacademic and commonsensical in the extreme. I hope you can dig in once you're settled.
Sam: smiling as I leave the house for my task. Self-imposed, undesirable, yet attractive in its challenge. BTW, the smile comes from reading this essay! Enjoy the day. Tim
Sam: interesting(at least to me) is the fact that I missed or didn’t fully appreciate what I consider the gem of the essay this morning as I walked out the door — “ choosing a task of consequence.” That phrase jolted me upon rereading this essay (twice) this afternoon. The power of choice is foundational for me, and combined with “task” and “consequence” it conjures up that which I have made a daily habit. Amidst the myriad distractions we are bombarded with every waking moment we still have choices. We can assign ourselves tasks, take on challenges, make them consequential, and create meaning where the “million horrors outside our control” threaten us with paralytic angst within our ease. The “mode of mind” you reference is just that- a choice, active and engaged, focused and with intent. The comments about your essay are a trove of similar thinking. Hence my smile as I walked down the steps… bravo.
Hey Sam, skipping ease this morning, headed for the boathouse and 8 miles of rowing, it’s primal when you shove off the dock by yourself in the early light. It’s you, the water and the promise of self inflected hardship. One stroke at a time. Can’t complain have to go and do the work! Great post as always. It never gets old does it?!?
Conditons were sublime this morning! Even rowed half decently for a change! Pinned it for 500 meters after 7 miles, it reminded me of the Latin phrase…Tempus Edax Rerum, time destroyer of all things!!! The older get the faster we were! As ole TS Eliot reminds, “for us there is only the trying, the rest is not our business…”
I love it. That man's words still resonate inside my mind—he a had a way with them. Not ironically, he had a hard time when he wasn't immersed in hardship. I can only imagine what a force he was when in the wild.
My coach and I often talk about folks (normally men) that walk by the gym. They look in the window and watch the combat commence, often stopping in their tracks for a second or two as they observe. Some of them will open the door and take a step forward, but most kind of shake themselves out of the trance and move on, life pulling them back into the fray of deserved ease or unfair extremes. There’s a spark in their eye for that brief moment, as if something internal recognizes that somewhere in this productive discomfort and shared pursuit of something better might lie their salvation.
You’ve masterfully described this spark.
There’s so much noise out there- complicated schemes, protocols, and routines- and many are lost in the sea of information. Your writing cuts through it all, clarifying what’s important, bringing us all back.
Man, I’m curious, too. It’s a tough concept to spread, because the value of the spark must be experienced to be believed. Belief in its meaning is just the beginning, as it must then be maintained so as both to be forgotten, lost.
A phenomenon or machine that will do all of that for us doesn’t seem like fun to me. In fact, it scares the shit out of me.
This is a subtle observation, one I have seen too often as well. Without a "must", stepping into deliberate hardship voluntarily is simply too outside the realm of normal for many. But I am curious to see what happens if AI removes the burden of work for millions. Either it will lead to existential breakdowns on a civilizational level far worse than what we see right now, or it will lead to a renaissance of mental and physical engagement. Time will tell.
Oh my mercy! I say this all of the time! Now people in their early 20s seem to have nothing to do except play video games and complain about the world. Used to be that men would join the military, then come home, get a good job, and start a family. No time for thinking about what to protest that day, or what people to target with hate.
It is a shift few if any could have seen coming. Peace and safety are the highest ideals until they are obtained and then all too many struggle to deal with them. A little hardship goes a long way. Thanks for the comment, Patty.
Primal challenge or not, all tasks can be perceived as meaningful or meaningless. Sometimes when I’m dropping (meaningless) numbers n a spreadsheet I consider that the act has brought a tiny amount of order to a chaotic corner of the corporation, and pushed entropy back from its goal of dissolution.
That is spot on, Tim. If drying socks can be significant, so can Excel spreadsheets. Though in my case it took awhile to find the joy in those tiny little rectangles, now I love them.
Great post Sam! Regarding the begining: "I like the essay format precisely for this reason—it is play. What else are essays for if not to experiment, riff, temporarily suspend nuance, speculate on risky ideas, and risk looking like a fool in order to discover an idea that might be life-changing?" In French the word essay means "To try", or "an attempt or effort." Which is why the essay is a great precursor to the longer form.
Great read Sam. I'm curious if you have been able to achieve this state of mind doing the mundane:
"And can you not complete this task—clearing a room, walking a mutt, reading a fable to a child, drying a pair of socks—with the purest excellence you are physically and mentally capable of?"
I have found this state of mind when doing the extreme or monumental - climbing a mountain, playing a competitive sport etc. But I find it hard to do when brushing my teeth. But on some level I know I must try; for every bit of sage advice about finding value in life ties back to this concept of finding meaning in the mundane.
Maybe it has to do with dopaminurgic reward circuitry in our brains. But I am yet to achieve this for more than a fleeting minute on the daily.
Hey Andy, to a certain extent I have. It is almost a form of meditation to be here and now brushing teeth, walking the dog, physical training—trying to be absolutely present and committed to each major and minor task.
I was in the same mindset you were until health issues forced me to reframe things. I couldn't wait for the next mission in combat or outdoor expedition to get me in the zone. I had to find the zone anytime, anywhere, and it turns out that experience has been a gift.
Again and again the great commanders taking over a new army impose new high standards of discipline, cleanliness, hygiene, fortifications, regular drills, immaculate weapons cleaning, and the same is true for sailors on board ship, when there is not a lot for high energy young men to do.
William Blake writes about seeing the universe in a grain of sand, and meaning can be found in meticulous self-discipline and attention to detail and the self-confidence they generate, the knowledge you’re ready for action, whenever the opportunity may come.
Have you read any of Plutarch’s Lives? You’d find the great commanders worthwhile: Lysander, Sulla, Sertorious.
This is dialed in, Chris. The task is all. And I love Plutarch, I've read about half of his lives. My favorite is still Coriolanus, and it is also my favorite Shakespeare play. Sort of off subject, but he would be the character who embodies all of my worst traits. Plutarch's ability to hone in on what matters when it comes to character, good and bad, is a gift.
I haven’t read Plutarch’s Coriolanus and it’s been decades since I’ve read Shakespeare’s blood and guts play about Coriolanus, but now that I know what they mean to you I’ll go back and read them.
I’m leaving tomorrow to attend this retreat, it’s the sort of experience you’d find interesting too, I’m sure: https://greece.costofglory.com/
“Primal Hardship” and “task” clarifies something similar that I see. We have been convinced that ease and happiness are the goals in life. However, I think hardship, pain, suffering, and the overcoming of limitations is the real state in life. Think about the success of a professional sports team. If their singular goal is to win a championship, then they will probably fail. If their goal is maximized their capacity to overcome their limitations of time, talent, background, and relationships, they create a dynasty and have a hall of fame career. In effect, trust the work, not the outcome.
It is a complete shift in mentality. I am genuinely curious at what point, maybe which decade, America shifted from finding meaning in the task and expecting everything to be endlessly blissful happiness. It would be a great study. I appreciate the thoughts, Ed.
I think it’s not the Task, it’s The tasks. It’s relatively easy to find meaning in a Task, but I think it’s wrapping up your entire life and having the majority of your tasks have meaning. I doubt anyone ever is not burdened occasionally with meaningless tasks. I haven’t given it much thought, it’s hard to think at my age, but there were a lot less opportunities in our parents times and therefore focus was spread across many fewer opportunities/tasks/jobs. Hell every time we pick up our smart phones, I hate the term, we are presented with hundreds if not, thousands of tasks that we mindlessly scroll through. I know I’ve lied to myself thinking oh I’m learning something here. I’m expanding my knowledge, whereas all I’m really doing is meaningless tasks and wasting my time. it would be a lot more useful for me to practice my Burpee‘s, or see how long my smart phone survives in my Vitamix.
I like this Vitamix experiment. Every now and then I feel the need to demolish an electronic device, usually a laptop. It is a way of showing a primate-like power over this inanimate object. The more Stoic minded would say anger and physical destruction of a material object is foolish, and yet my experiences demonstrate otherwise—there is something simple, primal, and ancient to it.
Your point about tasks is well received. Knowing when to say No is crucial, especially when looked at over the course of a lifetime.
Thank you, Marshall, these are great thoughts to play with.
One thought on meaning I've been playing with, which I believe underpins this sense of meaninglessness that's plaguing so many, is reframing what "should" be. I think many people reach meaninglessness through the mentality of: "this shouldn't be this hard" or "this should be easier." Then they eventually feel hopeless.
The alternative is acceptance: "This is hard." Yes, you will struggle, fail, and keep going. Somewhere along the way, people have been taught to believe things shouldn't be hard.
This is spot on. It "should" exactly "what it is." All that should be anything is how we respond to it and regulate our expectations. I dig this nuance.
Excellent Sam, I’m envious of your talent for expression.
I suggest a nuance, not just meaninglessness, but also hopelessness, they are first cousins.
A great measure of the quality of your writing is the people you’ve attracted to your substack as proven in the comments. Extraordinary.
I have been blessed with thoughtful and reflective readers. It is more than I deserve. I like your distinction. Hope is a condition I've spent very little time thinking about and need to mull over a bit more.
I hope you do. 🤣
Primal Hardship, a compelling idea. You're seeking the sweet spot of stress or healthy stress - hormesis. Zeroing in on your ZPD or zone of proximal development as a similar idea. Flow states are found when working at the edges of our competence, not too hard and not too easy. It feels good to be fully focused on something. So, too, perhaps, with stress. In times of ease and dis-ease seek to focus fully on something productive. All to get outside the dread inside our own head and focus on something constructive instead.
I'm here for it. An idea that is core to my book is not just immersing ourselves in the task, but the more difficult part ahead of time—being comfortable with that destructive potential inside. I have always been fascinated by introspection, questioning, peering the "abyss" as Nietzsche would say. I appreciate the thinking material, Ben.
It's the difference between the question, "Why bother?" and "What can I do *right now*?"
Both meaninglessness and despair are tied to the first question. The second question suspends the first in the same way that faith suspends questions about the future and how things could possibly work out.
With how little I believe in the world and how meaningless I take most modern work to be, there have been countless times that I've been unemployed or otherwise broke, not knowing how anything could come together in the coming days or weeks...but that never meant I couldn't go to the gym, play with my dog, sit down and write, etc. Indeed, if the daunting things and questions are up in the air, you may as well find something else to do while waiting for them to settle.
Beautiful comment. Have you read Eric Hoffer? Some of your thoughts and deductions are areas he played quite a bit. The True Believer is more intense and focused, but the Ordeal of Change, The Temper of Our Time, and others are deeply existential and very working man / commonsensical. You might dig it.
I haven't, no. I'd kinda given up on reading 20th century philosophy. Heidegger and Dreyfus and Dreyfus’ students were all fruitful, but still seemed divorced from the real world. That was always my issue with academia.
I see that Hoffer was a longshoreman, though. Taught as an adjunct but that's it. A thinker, but on the ground instead of way up in the Ivory Tower. Once I get my feet properly planted and books are a viable expense again, I'll order a couple of his books.
I highly recommend, being familiar with some of your writing. He was poor, homeless, a migrant worker, then a longshoreman. The entirety of his philosophy is unacademic and commonsensical in the extreme. I hope you can dig in once you're settled.
Sam: smiling as I leave the house for my task. Self-imposed, undesirable, yet attractive in its challenge. BTW, the smile comes from reading this essay! Enjoy the day. Tim
Rock on Timothy, I appreciate it. Get after it.
Sam: interesting(at least to me) is the fact that I missed or didn’t fully appreciate what I consider the gem of the essay this morning as I walked out the door — “ choosing a task of consequence.” That phrase jolted me upon rereading this essay (twice) this afternoon. The power of choice is foundational for me, and combined with “task” and “consequence” it conjures up that which I have made a daily habit. Amidst the myriad distractions we are bombarded with every waking moment we still have choices. We can assign ourselves tasks, take on challenges, make them consequential, and create meaning where the “million horrors outside our control” threaten us with paralytic angst within our ease. The “mode of mind” you reference is just that- a choice, active and engaged, focused and with intent. The comments about your essay are a trove of similar thinking. Hence my smile as I walked down the steps… bravo.
I'm stoked this resonated with you. The power of choice is foundational to this entire approach and framework. Thank you.
Hey Sam, skipping ease this morning, headed for the boathouse and 8 miles of rowing, it’s primal when you shove off the dock by yourself in the early light. It’s you, the water and the promise of self inflected hardship. One stroke at a time. Can’t complain have to go and do the work! Great post as always. It never gets old does it?!?
That's all there is to it. Yours is a particularly enjoyable task because you get some solid inside-the-skull time. Enjoy the water, Charles.
Conditons were sublime this morning! Even rowed half decently for a change! Pinned it for 500 meters after 7 miles, it reminded me of the Latin phrase…Tempus Edax Rerum, time destroyer of all things!!! The older get the faster we were! As ole TS Eliot reminds, “for us there is only the trying, the rest is not our business…”
Great stuff, Sam. I’m also reminded of the Shackleton family motto: “Fortitudine Vincimus” — “by endurance, we conquer.”
I love it. That man's words still resonate inside my mind—he a had a way with them. Not ironically, he had a hard time when he wasn't immersed in hardship. I can only imagine what a force he was when in the wild.
Thank you, Sam, for another bulwark against the seeming onslaught of nihilism. Looking forward to your book. Be well!
You're more than welcome, and thank you!
Another excellent essay, Sam! Will be spending some more time with this one.
Rock on, Scott. I appreciate it.
My coach and I often talk about folks (normally men) that walk by the gym. They look in the window and watch the combat commence, often stopping in their tracks for a second or two as they observe. Some of them will open the door and take a step forward, but most kind of shake themselves out of the trance and move on, life pulling them back into the fray of deserved ease or unfair extremes. There’s a spark in their eye for that brief moment, as if something internal recognizes that somewhere in this productive discomfort and shared pursuit of something better might lie their salvation.
You’ve masterfully described this spark.
There’s so much noise out there- complicated schemes, protocols, and routines- and many are lost in the sea of information. Your writing cuts through it all, clarifying what’s important, bringing us all back.
Thanks for another important piece.
Man, I’m curious, too. It’s a tough concept to spread, because the value of the spark must be experienced to be believed. Belief in its meaning is just the beginning, as it must then be maintained so as both to be forgotten, lost.
A phenomenon or machine that will do all of that for us doesn’t seem like fun to me. In fact, it scares the shit out of me.
This is a subtle observation, one I have seen too often as well. Without a "must", stepping into deliberate hardship voluntarily is simply too outside the realm of normal for many. But I am curious to see what happens if AI removes the burden of work for millions. Either it will lead to existential breakdowns on a civilizational level far worse than what we see right now, or it will lead to a renaissance of mental and physical engagement. Time will tell.
Oh my mercy! I say this all of the time! Now people in their early 20s seem to have nothing to do except play video games and complain about the world. Used to be that men would join the military, then come home, get a good job, and start a family. No time for thinking about what to protest that day, or what people to target with hate.
It is a shift few if any could have seen coming. Peace and safety are the highest ideals until they are obtained and then all too many struggle to deal with them. A little hardship goes a long way. Thanks for the comment, Patty.
Your wisdom is much needed in this day and age my friend.
Primal challenge or not, all tasks can be perceived as meaningful or meaningless. Sometimes when I’m dropping (meaningless) numbers n a spreadsheet I consider that the act has brought a tiny amount of order to a chaotic corner of the corporation, and pushed entropy back from its goal of dissolution.
That is spot on, Tim. If drying socks can be significant, so can Excel spreadsheets. Though in my case it took awhile to find the joy in those tiny little rectangles, now I love them.
Great post Sam! Regarding the begining: "I like the essay format precisely for this reason—it is play. What else are essays for if not to experiment, riff, temporarily suspend nuance, speculate on risky ideas, and risk looking like a fool in order to discover an idea that might be life-changing?" In French the word essay means "To try", or "an attempt or effort." Which is why the essay is a great precursor to the longer form.
Thanks, John. I can think of no better way to describe it. There are few better ways to explore an idea regardless of where it goes.
Great read Sam. I'm curious if you have been able to achieve this state of mind doing the mundane:
"And can you not complete this task—clearing a room, walking a mutt, reading a fable to a child, drying a pair of socks—with the purest excellence you are physically and mentally capable of?"
I have found this state of mind when doing the extreme or monumental - climbing a mountain, playing a competitive sport etc. But I find it hard to do when brushing my teeth. But on some level I know I must try; for every bit of sage advice about finding value in life ties back to this concept of finding meaning in the mundane.
Maybe it has to do with dopaminurgic reward circuitry in our brains. But I am yet to achieve this for more than a fleeting minute on the daily.
Hey Andy, to a certain extent I have. It is almost a form of meditation to be here and now brushing teeth, walking the dog, physical training—trying to be absolutely present and committed to each major and minor task.
I was in the same mindset you were until health issues forced me to reframe things. I couldn't wait for the next mission in combat or outdoor expedition to get me in the zone. I had to find the zone anytime, anywhere, and it turns out that experience has been a gift.