The Comfort Crisis
by Michael Easter
Easter argues that modern comfort has made us physically and mentally soft, and reports from a month-long Alaskan hunt, a Bhutanese death-reflection practice and labs studying boredom and hunger. The 'misogi' idea, one very hard thing a year, has caught on. It is journalism with a point of view, engaging and occasionally overstated.
Read it if…
you are comfortable, restless and want a case for voluntary hardship.
Skip it if…
you are already overextended; the book is for people with too little challenge, not too much.
Three things you will actually use
- Carry heavy things; rucking is a start.
- Be bored on purpose; leave the phone.
- Reflect on death daily, briefly, to sharpen priorities.
Do this first
Plan one genuinely hard physical challenge for this year with a fifty-percent chance of failure.
Our verdict
Engaging and bracing; a good push for the too-comfortable.
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