The Comfort Crisis x Michael Easter
Another day, another crisis
⭐⭐
Non-Fiction, 2021
🎧 9 Hours/📖 304 Pages
Before we get into things, I’d like to clarify that despite the two star rating, I didn’t dislike The Comfort Crisis. It was fine. I think it was mentioned on a podcast and, interested in the topic at large, I checked out the audiobook (my preferred format for pop non-fiction titles so I can multi-task while listening on 2x speed). I suspect part of the low rating is due to coming in with too much background on the subject for it to leave me anything but a neutral opinion.
The crisis at hand is that we are all too comfortable, have too much convenience, and are living unhappy, friction-less lives. It is both a summary of research behind the impact of excessive comfort and an anecdote of author Michael Easter’s journey to conquer his own excessive comfort, including joining a group of men as they trek into areas that likely haven’t been touched by humans in the dark, dark wood of the Alaskan wilderness.
Easter’s trip is extreme and clearly not feasible for everyone, but exemplifies the idea of pushing ourselves outside personal comfort zones. Listening to him prepare for the trip, I thought of Ben Kielesinski, an adventure content-creator known for his quippy “Do you want to go on an adventure with me? Too bad you’re coming.” intro and Wes Anderson-esque videos as he travels the globe, or that Anthony Bourdain quote about moving as much as you can.
The Comfort Crisis was similar in spirit to Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Kyle Chayka’s Filterworld, though if you’re interested in the ideas of increasing friction and decreasing comfort, I’d recommend this duo first. Titles like these, along with a multitude of Substack essays, reveal the drastic oversimplification and reduced grit that has so quickly rushed over society, literary reminders that there is value in inconvenience.
“If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.” - Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations