闲人

What do you like?

Chances are, no you don't. Most probably, you like the feeling that arises when you engage in what you presume you like. We eat something, we feel pleasure, we identify the food as something we 'like'. Through years of experience, we learn all the shortcuts that stimulate our brains' pleasure and pain centres, and we build stories about ourselves and our 'likes' and 'dislikes'. If we indulge in something too much, it ceases to stimulate the pleasure centres as much, and we get 'bored', and find something else to access the shortcut to relive the pleasure.

Blessing or curse, it is also our nature to make sense of things, to make meaning. The relentless pursuit of what is essentially a brain reaction thus leads us to glorify 'success', presumably because it is a state that allows optimum stimulation of pleasure centres. Whatever route you choose it remains the same, whether you pursue creativity, service to society, economic success, spirituality or other things that people find meaningful, it is after all a seeking to stimulate different brain reactions that different people prefer.

So, what do we do?