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The harder something is, the more rewarding it is. It would definitely be harder to tour Africa in an old, beat-up Honda Civic than in a jeep, and it would be

by sofal 11y ago

The harder something is, the more rewarding it is. It would definitely be harder to tour Africa in an old, beat-up Honda Civic than in a jeep, and it would be even harder to tour all of Africa without a vehicle, or without supplies entirely, blindfolded, and with your hands tied behind your back.

grecy 11y ago
Absolutely. So what I'm doing in my life is walking the line between easy and hard, in such a way as to keep it challenging and interesting, while not making it downright painful and so difficult that I won't enjoy it. Everyone has their own personal line to walk. I'm driving a nice Jeep, which for me, is as challenging as I personally can handle, without it being painful and not enjoyable. At the end of the day I'm doing this for enjoyment, not for punishment. People tougher than me ride motorbikes. People tougher than that ride bicycles. People tougher than that walk (yes, it's been done). etc. etc. There will always be someone doing something more daring than me, but I'm not interested in what other people are doing, I'm finding my own personal balance / limit of difficult yet enjoyable.
- sofal 11y ago
  I think instead of framing it as a continuum between easy and tough with a strict correlating reward factor, it makes more sense to frame it in terms of the types of challenges you enjoy versus the types you simply don't. The rewards that come from challenges and difficulty are not often correlated with the amount or intensity of the difficulty, and even when they are, they are often inversely correlated. You need to take into account the type of difficulty (e.g. mastering a musical instrument vs enduring an abusive parent) and the predilections of the person trying to overcome the difficulty (e.g. many people who enjoy difficult challenges may not enjoy the challenge of living in a freezing climate). The challenges that you enjoy are what make you an interesting person, and so the simple statement that “the harder something is, the more rewarding it is” is not only completely false on its face, but it tells us nothing about you other than the possibility that you might be a masochist. So one might say that they think that New Zealand provides the benefits with less of the challenges, but you could say back to them that the types of challenges that New Zealand lessens are for the most part the exact kind of challenges that you enjoy. An answer like that would better help people understand where you're coming from, which is good because you seem like a genuinely interesting person.
  - grecy 11y ago
    Thanks. I guess that's what I was trying to say, I'm just not as eloquent as you.

by sofal 11y ago

grecy 11y ago

Absolutely. So what I'm doing in my life is walking the line between easy and hard, in such a way as to keep it challenging and interesting, while not making it downright painful and so difficult that I won't enjoy it. Everyone has their own personal line to walk. I'm driving a nice Jeep, which for me, is as challenging as I personally can handle, without it being painful and not enjoyable. At the end of the day I'm doing this for enjoyment, not for punishment. People tougher than me ride motorbikes. People tougher than that ride bicycles. People tougher than that walk (yes, it's been done). etc. etc. There will always be someone doing something more daring than me, but I'm not interested in what other people are doing, I'm finding my own personal balance / limit of difficult yet enjoyable.

sofal 11y ago
I think instead of framing it as a continuum between easy and tough with a strict correlating reward factor, it makes more sense to frame it in terms of the types of challenges you enjoy versus the types you simply don't. The rewards that come from challenges and difficulty are not often correlated with the amount or intensity of the difficulty, and even when they are, they are often inversely correlated. You need to take into account the type of difficulty (e.g. mastering a musical instrument vs enduring an abusive parent) and the predilections of the person trying to overcome the difficulty (e.g. many people who enjoy difficult challenges may not enjoy the challenge of living in a freezing climate). The challenges that you enjoy are what make you an interesting person, and so the simple statement that “the harder something is, the more rewarding it is” is not only completely false on its face, but it tells us nothing about you other than the possibility that you might be a masochist. So one might say that they think that New Zealand provides the benefits with less of the challenges, but you could say back to them that the types of challenges that New Zealand lessens are for the most part the exact kind of challenges that you enjoy. An answer like that would better help people understand where you're coming from, which is good because you seem like a genuinely interesting person.
- grecy 11y ago
  Thanks. I guess that's what I was trying to say, I'm just not as eloquent as you.