In some of his better known work, a then little known mathematician wrote about this sort of behaviour, the deep underlying societal causes, and proposed explos

In some of his better known work, a then little known mathematician wrote about this sort of behaviour, the deep underlying societal causes, and proposed explosive solutions to the problem: " We use the term “surrogate activity” to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the “fulfillment” that they get from pursuing the goal. Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities. Given a person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal X, ask yourself this: If he had to devote most of his time and energy to satisfying his biological needs, and if that effort required him to use his physical and mental faculties in a varied and interesting way, would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X? If the answer is no, then the person’s pursuit of goal X is a surrogate activity." https://medium.com/chris-messina/surrogate-activities-the-power-process-16203dda87 https://medium.com/chris-messina/surrogate-activities-the-po...