Get comfy as you listen to this episode! In episode 118 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss all things comfortable…and uncomfortable. They talk through the conflation of comfort and luxury, modern architecture’s prioritization of comfort, and whether our need for comfort is the reason for our burning planet. With everything from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to “the comfort-industrial complex,” this episode will have you questioning what it takes for us to lead a full and happy life. Plus, in...
Hello and welcome to Overthink, the podcast.
Where two philosophers help you get comfortable with big ideas.
I'm David Pena Guzman.
And I'm Ellie Anderson.
David, there are a bunch of books that have come out about comfort recently and, and most of them are in the self help genre.
Some are pro comfort, others are anti comfort.
I'm just going to list a few titles for you as we get started.
Love it.
The Comfort Zone, the Comfort Book, and the Comfort Embrace discomfort to reclaim your wild, happy, healthy self.
That one gets bonus points because it has both comfort and discomfort in the title.
Wait, so are we supposed to be comfortable or uncomfortable?
I feel like you're supposed to be comfortable with discomfort, but I guess it depends on the book.
I mean, let's talk for a second about one of them.
The Comfort Book.
This is a recent book by Matt Haig, who's sort of styled himself as a self help author after writing a successful fantasy novel called the Midnight Library.
And the Comfort book is like a series of one page inspirational quotes, ideas and anecdotes.
And Haig says it was born out of the fact that he sometimes writes things down to comfort himself.
So the book isn't really about comfort so much as it is meant to help comfort the reader in the way that it comforted him in creating it.
I mean, honestly, I did this when I was a teenager and I called it the Book of Inspiration.
And not to throw too much shade, but what I found in Haig's book wasn't much better.