Suffering now; fun after the fact, in retrospect

Not everything that you should want to do is “fun” in the classical sense of the word. Some things are, but some things only become fun after the fact. Fun, here, meaning basically “feels good”.

You should try to remember when doing Type 2 activities, that they are, indeed, “fun”.

James Stuber categorizes “fun” into two buckets:

Type 1 Fun

Stuff that’s fun right now. Eating ice cream. Sliding down a hill on a sled. Playing with a puppy.

Type 2 Fun

Stuff that’s not fun right now, but becomes fun upon reflection. These would be like a Tough Mudder. Exercise. Group study.

You could almost marry these up to Systems 1 & 2. Type 1 fun goes with System 1. Type 2 fun is slower, like System 2. You could also say that Type 2 fun is the opposite of Anticipatory Anxiety - it’s pain now suffered in anticipation of a good thing later.

If you waste your entire day having Low-Effort Fun, you may wind up not being able to enjoy yourself at all. Like all things, the key is Balance.


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