The Problem with Problems
Confidence Spectrum: 70% (80% for the first half, 60% for the last half)
Every day you will encounter a laundry list of problems. Body aches, running late, a dirty house, burnout at work, loneliness, stress, flat tires, unexpected bills, loss, disappointments, and even laundry itself. The problems themselves are, obviously, problematic. But there is something more insidious than just the problems themselves. It doesn't matter how hard you work, how lucky you are, or how much you care, there will always be problems in your life. This is the 'Problem with Problems': not the problems themselves, but the fact that they never end.
Getting a more rewarding job, meeting a significant other (or leaving your significant other), retiring, having more free time, making closer friends, overcoming a physical ailment, reaching financial stability, etc. will not end the Problem with Problems. These goals are worth pursuing, but reaching your goals doesn't make problems disappear; it just creates new ones. We always end up right back at square one.
Is this that surprising though? Ask yourself: Did you ever really think that one morning you'd wake up and have no more problems for the rest of your life? Of course not. We know this but somehow develop amnesia to it when things are going smoothly. We are somehow caught off guard by things we knew were bound to happen. The damning corollary here is that, unless something is done, life is a hedonic treadmill fueled by the pursuit of an illusory problem-free life.
So I think we should do something about it.
Sisyphus is a character in Greek mythology who really angered the gods. The gods, feeling clever with their punishment, condemned him to push a boulder up a mountain. The catch is that once it gets to the top it would always roll back down. Each time, Sisyphus must descend and start again. And he must do this over and over — for all of eternity. When facing the Problem with Problems, we are like Sisyphus and his boulder. Except this is real life, not a mythological thought experiment. Our fight is with entropy, not Zeus.
So what can we do?
I see three ways this plays out.
First, one can continue to push their boulders up the hill and continue to be shocked when they roll back down. This is the default approach. It's soul-death by 1,000 paper cuts. It's chronic dissatisfaction. It is what running in the rat race looks like. Without awareness of the fact that we will always have problems (I.e. The Problem with Problems), we are endlessly surprised and frustrated when the boulder rolls back down the mountain.
The second way I see this playing out is that one could stop having goals and desires because a goal and a problem are two sides of the same coin. If life is a never-ending series of falling down - why try to stand? When I (and I imagine most people) first internalized the Problem with Problems, this was a tempting solution. If goals are creating these problems, let's just stop having goals. Problem solved (pun intended). A life without goals may sound dystopian, but at least it's honest, right? Aside from this being philosophically questionable in practice (one's goal has simply just shifted to 'having no goals', which is a goal that brings its own set of problems), there is a third solution that is less cynical.
The third way the Problem with Problems can play out: one can keep their goals and desires but do so with a degree of detachment from the outcome. We can push the boulder up the hill because it's a goal of ours, but also be completely open to (even expecting) the boulder to fall back down.
I.e., one can keep their goals in mind while being completely open to (even expecting) it to not fundamentally solve anything. There's no shock or surprise when getting that new job you wanted just brings with it a new set of problems or a change in relationship status doesn't turn out the way you planned.
But what's the point if you don't care about the outcome!? It's meaningless.
That's the point. Right there in plain sight. The meaning of things isn't intrinsic to a goal itself. It is imbued by the person.
In other words, any meaning derived from pushing a rock to the top of a hill has nothing to do with the rock, the mountain, or the location of the rock. It has everything to do with the attitude and attention of the person.
For example, Person A's dream job is to run a local community garden. They grew up in an agricultural town, his/her parents were farmers, and food has always been a central component to his/her culture and identity. Running a small local garden would be extremely meaningful to Person A. However, this job sounds horrible to Person B. Person B wants to study quantum physics and get out of the dinky farm town and into the city. But get this - Person B has that community garden job right now. So, while Person B sulks in their meaningless work and tries to find a way out, Person A is volunteering her time in the garden and wondering how Person B got such a great position. In summary, there's no inherent meaning to the job; it is imbued by the person.
This is applicable to the Problem with Problems. We create the fuel for the hedonic treadmill when we imbue meaning into the idea that solving problems in life is taking us forward towards happiness and purpose. If we could stop feeding this fallacy, we'd overcome the Problem with Problems.
It may sound like wishful thinking that we can 'just change our perspective, care less about problems, and be happier', but it's not that far-fetched. We change our perspective on things all the time. Your political, personal, and spiritual beliefs have slowly shifted over the last decade. Consequently, the things you imbue meaning into has shifted over the last decade. The difference between that natural process and what I'm suggesting is that instead of being a passive bystander in the process, we try to consciously aim what we imbue meaning into.
Ok fine. But what exactly should imbue meaning into?
Imbue it into whatever you want. Your relationships, your job, and all those other 'good goals' mentioned at the beginning. Or imbue it into doing dishes, driving to work, or walking the dog. The trap we must avoid is imbuing meaning into the results of those things. Don't imbue it into reaching these things; imbue it into the actual act itself. This subtle difference is important because there is no endpoint for meaning. Otherwise, there would be a finish line you could cross and say 'I did it! I found meaning, now I'm done for the rest of my life.' That's not the case. There is no finish line. So in order to avoid crossing 1,000 false finish lines in life (Option 1), meaning needs to be imbued into something continuous with the flow of time. Don't imbue it in the past. Don't imbue it in the future. Imbue it into now.
In philosophy, there is a line of thought called absurdism. It refers to the conflict that arises when seeking meaning or purpose in something that is inherently meaningless or purposeless. It's looking for something that literally isn't there. Like looking for a house in a room; it doesn't make sense. You're bound to be lost from the outset with a goal like that.
Absurdism seems relevant when we face the Problem with Problems. The purpose of solving problems can't be to make them go away; that is never going to happen. In a similar vein, the purpose of Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill can't be to get it to rest at the top; that is never going to happen.
Thinking meaning is to be derived from these things is absurd (in the literal sense and philosophical sense). But that is not to say there isn't meaning in solving problems and pushing boulders. There is meaning, it's just not innate in accomplishing our goals; it's in what we choose to imbue. Choose wisely and consciously. When Sisyphus realizes he can do this, even he escapes from his eternal torment.