Perhaps you can both be right. I don’t see why these goals need to be mutually exclusive: Find the pleasure in life first, but then also make the effort to refi

Perhaps you can both be right. I don’t see why these goals need to be mutually exclusive: Find the pleasure in life first, but then also make the effort to refine your worldview and gain control over how thoughts enter your head and which thoughts. Whether or not DFW had a fatal tendency to over-intellectualize he can still be correct in his assessment and aims as described in his speech. Failing to meet your first criteria (find the pleasure and don’t lose sight of it) doesn’t make his goal any less worthwhile if you can maintain a balance in all things.