<story><title>How Schopenhauer’s thought can illuminate a midlife crisis</title><url>https://aeon.co/ideas/how-schopenhauers-thought-can-illuminate-a-midlife-crisis</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>aphextron</author><text>&amp;gt;It is no accident that the young and the old are generally more satisfied with life than those in middle age.&lt;p&gt;I was sitting in my car looking at a stop sign the other day, and all of the sudden it started shaking uncontrollably. Immediately I knew it must be a child shaking it, as there was simply no other possibility. No other person would just stand there and shake a street sign for no purpose beyond its&amp;#x27; own sake. There is no benefit, no reward, no ultimate reasoning beyond &amp;#x27;I want to shake this street sign&amp;quot;. As I looked down, I was right, and the kid was grinning like crazy.&lt;p&gt;We lose the ability to think like that as adults. It&amp;#x27;s not even that we &lt;i&gt;have&lt;/i&gt; the thought and then consciously decide against it; we&amp;#x27;re incapable of even conceiving it. To just &amp;#x27;play&amp;#x27; in life. And I think it&amp;#x27;s the most important aspect of our humanity. It is the very genesis of all our innovative and creative ideas, yet we treat it as something to be expelled in the process of &amp;quot;growing up&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>How Schopenhauer’s thought can illuminate a midlife crisis</title><url>https://aeon.co/ideas/how-schopenhauers-thought-can-illuminate-a-midlife-crisis</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dmix</author><text>Years ago I accidentally came across a really good book that explores Schopenhauer&amp;#x27;s fascinating worldview through the lens of psychiatry and personal development, called &amp;quot;The Schopenhauer Cure&amp;quot;, which got me hooked on Schopenhauer (and a lesser extent Nietzsche): 
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Schopenhauer-Cure-Novel-Irvin-Yalom&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;0060938102&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Schopenhauer-Cure-Novel-Irvin-Yalom&amp;#x2F;d...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I highly recommend it to people who would consider themselves on the logical&amp;#x2F;intelligent end of the spectrum and who tend to pursue their work, accomplishments, and gaining knowledge above all else in life.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s also a great soft introduction to his work, without having to read dense 19th century philosophy.&lt;p&gt;One of the most useful lessons I learn from Schopenhauer was to look beyond structuring your life around trying to be &amp;quot;happy&amp;quot; and avoiding being &amp;quot;sad&amp;quot;, and instead seek some deeper meaning beyond some fleeting emotional chemical reactions in your brain. It makes me laugh now when&lt;p&gt;I now laugh when I hear people say &amp;quot;money doesn&amp;#x27;t make you happy&amp;quot;, not so much for the money part, but the fallacy of using an emotion like &amp;quot;being happy&amp;quot; as the measure for a quality life.</text></comment>