[SOC]

It is about 11 p.m. on a Monday night as I write this. For some weird reason, I want to write about my health, but that is shit some old man would talk about. Drink prune juice and go on living. Nobody wants to hear about your ailments.

The one ailment I do have is the perpetual tug of war between boredom and frustration. This is something I have talked with my brother about on many occasions. In all my essays, I talk about solutions. In these SOC pieces, I talk about my problems. Here is the biggest problem I have right now. I am bored. This is a big problem. I will try and elaborate.

For the last five years or so, I have been very happy. Realizing that happiness comes from flow and that flow comes from a life of rational activity, I have thrown myself into various projects while planning dozens more. The result was enthusiasm but frustration. Over and over, I run into the brick walls of limitation. This is why I am always going on about time, money, and energy.

In trying to answer the frustration issue, I have opted to cut back on my ambitious plans. I took a minimalist turn. The frustration abated. The end result is boredom. Boredom is the antithesis of happiness. I think it was Schopenhauer who said that life was either boredom or frustration. Very true shit.

The life of an autotelic Aristotelian type is a life of robustness. It is the Renaissance ideal. To accomplish this requires a great deal of effort, but it doesn't feel like effort. You are enjoying life. The problem is that it is so damn frustrating. Every time you come up with a plan, you can't pull it off because the plan requires resources you don't have. For instance, you might decide to read all the literary works in the Western Canon. Where are you going to find the time to do this? That is just one thing you can do. Only one. The result is that the life of the Renaissance Man is one of daydreams, half completed projects, and good intentions.

The flip side of this is the Platonic minimalist Zen Buddhist Stoic monk. This person simplifies to the bare essentials until they feel at peace. But this peace is just another word for boredom. Boredom is the opposite of happiness. Simplifying answers the frustration issue but leaves you with a new problem. This problem is boredom and as Schopenhauer puts it, "Boredom is a direct proof that existence is itself valueless, for boredom is nothing other than the sensation of the emptiness of existence."

I believe that happiness is finding meaning in an otherwise empty existence. You can spend all your time staring into the abyss trying to figure it out, but it won't do you any good. There is nothing to figure out. As Keynes put it, "In the long run, we are all dead."

When you choose to simplify, you are deciding between two or more things. In order to make the choice, you must decide what matters and what does not. This is a question of value. As you cycle through these choices, you realize that nothing matters at all. You lose the will to live or carry on. Boredom is the result.

I have been here many times. I find that simplifying is a negation of life. Frustration is a vexing issue, but it is not the same as unhappiness. When you follow the robust path, you have an enthusiasm for life. You want to live. You wake up each day wanting to do all the things you would like to do. Yes, it is easier to abandon a project as opposed to completing a project. The problem with completing projects is that we can't seem to pull it off because we lack focus, direction, and the like.

Both the robust life and the simple life have one thing in common. They are both choosing not to choose. One says all. The other says none. One scans all the channels on the TV set. The other throws the TV set out the window. The middle path is the way to go. We make our choices and live with those choices. The result is you get to choose boredom, frustration, or regret. Of the three, regret is the easiest to overcome.

This middle path between Renaissance Man and monk is what I call a "blue collar" path. This doesn't mean that you spend your days doing manual labor. What it means is less a commitment to goals and projects as it does a commitment to work. Back in the day, I was a fan of the Detroit Pistons squad when they won two championships with Isiah Thomas. These were the "Bad Boys" who took a blue collar approach to things. They weren't the most talented or the most accomplished. They just played a hard and gritty game of basketball. They poured a lot of heart into it. For a guy with as little talent as I have, that was an inspiring message and example. The meek could inherit the earth through hard work and perseverance.

Flow comes from work. It doesn't come from accomplishment since I quickly forget accomplishments. It doesn't come from idleness either. The dreamer puts together a list of things to do and doesn't do them. The idler skips the list and does nothing. The worker just goes out and works and sees what happens. The result is neither boredom nor frustration. Success and failure become meaningless to him.

This blue collar strategy represents my best answer to these problems I have. It is hard work without ambition. It is labor without frustration. If I am bored, it is almost always a result of not working. The answer is to work harder. When I am working good and hard, I get that feeling of flow. I lose myself in the work.

This path I am on mirrors the path of Western culture. You had the Dark Ages under Platonic thinking. This was negation of life. Then, you had the Renaissance under Aristotelian thinking which was flourishing but excessive. Then, along came the purity and austerity but world embracing thinking of the Protestant Reformation. It was the Renaissance without the excess. People focused on the useful versus the frivolous. Hard work and thrift became mainstays. The irony is that those people went on to surpass those Renaissance people.

The practical application of this is that I automatically eschew certain things. I don't do "vacation living." This would be vacations, weekend trips, hobbies, etc. The truth is that these things are terribly boring. The second thing I eschew is "McMansion living" which goes along with vacation living. The Renaissance was known for two things--its culture and its structures. The Puritans are known for their simplicity, thrift, and hard work.

The things I value are fairly simple. I value thrift and simplicity. This answers the resource problems concerning time, money, and energy. I value a good work ethic which goes further to resolve the resource problem as you earn more, get in better shape, and acquire knowledge and skills. I value authenticity which cuts out a ton of bullshit. I can go on and on, but it is those values that determine our choices. We end up with few regrets because you can't regret the loss of something you never wanted.

The bottom line is that the answer to boredom and frustration is simple hard work. Just get up every day and put on your hard hat. Hunker down and get 'er done. If you are bored, work. If you work hard as hell, you end up with less frustration because all frustration is ultimately a belief that we could have done better but didn't. When you work hard, you sleep well knowing you did your best with nothing left to give.

I have not fully plowed ahead with this blue collar mindset. This is why I am where I am now. It is time to get on with it.

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