>>9515404some people have called it a spiritual problem, i would say a philosophical problem, realistically it's probably different perspectives on the same idea. there are very intelligent individuals who are stuck in a wrong mentality that stifles them or society or both
take mid-life crises, some middle-aged worker decides his life was wasted and goes into a destructive spiral trying to find meaning with short-sighted decisions. even brilliant people fall into that
this stems from some idea that your work should be the fulfilling attribute of your life, when in the past it was seen more as a duty, that you found contentment and happiness elsewhere (hobbies or family) and work was a fulfillment of duty and a way of continuing the things outside - now people believe work itself should be the source of satisfaction, and grow jaded when it isn't (no one wants to be an insurance deductible actuary or an accounts receivable clerk, but these jobs need to get done for society)
a running problem is that people only seek short-sighted quick fixes that do not provide lasting solutions, like boomers selling off capital and inheritable influence for the temporary or millennials squandering formative years doing stupid unsustainable shit and then begging for debt cancellations and bailouts to continue that kind of life
there are a number of philosophical (you might call spiritual) people have, like
>happiness is an endgoal and not a temporal state of beingthis leads to defeatism when one isn't currently happy, and leads to crises because some think they're missing out
>conflating happiness and fulfillment as one and the samethis leads to depression when one finds their sources of happiness aren't providing them fulfillment
an experiential example of that: i'd be happy working minimum wage and drinking myself into a stupor every opportunity, but i'd go nowhere. practicing piano and training is difficult and introduces hardship and struggle but provides more fulfillment
