Summary of Paul Bloom's The Sweet Spot

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Paul Bloom's The Sweet Spot in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book.Original book introduction: Drawing on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science, The Sweet Spot shows how the right kind of suffering sets the stage for enhanced pleasure. Pain can distract us from our anxieties and help us transcend the self. Choosing to suffer can serve social goals; it can display how tough we are or, conversely, can function as a cry for help. Feelings of fear and sadness are part of the pleasure of immersing ourselves in play and fantasy and can provide certain moral satisfactions. And effort, struggle, and difficulty can, in the right contexts, lead to the joys of mastery and flow.

But suffering plays a deeper role as well. We are not natural hedonists - a good life involves more than pleasure. People seek lives of meaning and significance; we aspire to rich relationships and satisfying pursuits, and this requires some amount of struggle, anxiety, and loss. Brilliantly argued, witty, and humane, Paul Bloom shows how a life without chosen suffering would be empty - and worse than that, boring

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638157397

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Paul Bloom's The Sweet Spot

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Everyone has their own specific taste in aversive experiences, ranging from spicy food to extreme sports. However, no one is immune to the allure of suffering.

#2

There are two types of suffering in life: suffering for pleasure and suffering for meaning. Suffering for pleasure is actively pursued, whereas suffering for meaning is not. With the first type of suffering, hot baths, rough sex, and so on, the participant is aware of the fact that the activity is causing them pain.

#3

Pleasure from pain is paradoxical because it is a feeling of both happiness and satisfaction, which makes it difficult to define. It is a feeling that arises from actual or potential tissue damage, and it is described as such.

#4

Pain, whether it be congenital or acquired, can be unpleasant, or it can be asymbolic, where the sufferer feels the pain but doesn’t find it unpleasant.

#5

Pain and pleasure are not opposites, and in