★ Highly recommended by Jaeseung Jeong (KAIST Professor), Junsu Kwon (Seoul National University Professor Emeritus), and John Frankl (Yonsei University Professor)!
★ Amazon's bestseller for 200 consecutive weeks, published in 13 countries worldwide!

“What have you lost in exchange for your comfort?”

Today we live in a more comfortable environment than ever before.
All rooms are perfectly climate-controlled, there is plenty of food around so you never feel hungry, life expectancy has increased thanks to modern medicine, and there are no challenges that threaten your survival.
But does comfort really bring health and happiness? Michael Easter, a behavior change expert and health journalist, has explored the Arctic, Alaska, Bhutan, war zones, and the Bolivian jungle, interviewing thousands of experts—from leading scholars and professional athletes to religious and environmental leaders—to explore the health, happiness, and meaningful lives of modern people.
In his quest for scientific strategies that could offer practical help in optimizing life, he found the answer in a sense humanity has lost: discomfort.

The author even embarks on a 33-day caribou hunt in the Alaskan wilderness to experience extreme discomfort firsthand.
In addition to the exciting and experimental Alaskan reporting, it presents groundbreaking research findings from diverse fields such as neuroscience, psychoanalysis, evolutionary psychology, exercise physiology, and anthropology, persuasively presenting the reasons why discomfort is necessary in our lives.
This book boldly challenges the dominant modern narrative that comfort leads to happiness and fulfillment.
It explores the evolutionary utility of discomfort, a sense lost by humanity, and delves into how comfort is connected to the problems facing modern people, such as addiction, depression, anxiety, suicide, obesity, loneliness syndrome, burnout, and loss of meaning in life.

It is said that modern people today live longer and better lives, earn more money, and are less likely to be murdered or starve than in all previous eras.
Even the poorest person in America is richer than all previous generations! Look! Don't these numbers, data, and graphs actually tell you that the world has become a better place? The world has certainly become a better place! But there's a catch.
Because our ancestors faced countless inconveniences every day, there were also inconveniences they didn't necessarily have to face.
That is, the most pressing problems facing modern civilization today, problems that are making the lives of countless people less healthy, more unhappy, and more destitute.
Thanks to modern medicine, people are living longer than ever before, but a closer look at the data reveals that a significant portion of their lives are dependent on drugs and machines.
Life expectancy has increased, but healthy life expectancy has decreased.

--- From "0.004 Percent: Instinctive and Evolutionary Laziness"

Of course, comfort and convenience are good things.
However, we have not always progressed in terms of 'a happy and healthy life', which is the most important indicator for humans.
Our past, when we lived in an environment of increasing comfort and abundance, produced results that no one intended.
Humanity now has extremely limited opportunities for profound and profound experiences.
The experiences we were meant to have are no longer relevant to our lives.
This has undoubtedly changed humanity, and not always in the best way.

--- From "0.004 Percent: Instinctive and Evolutionary Laziness"

We headed along the ridge to the campsite.
Smoke from the west was blocking out the sun, creating a reddish-brown shade.
A feeling of 'I'm alive' comes over me.
It was a feeling far more intense than the first few days of sobriety when I realized that a whole new life lay before me.
My mind was more calm and my body was more useful.
I found myself in sync with the wild rhythm, several times higher than the frequency of the hectic modern life.

--- From "18 Meters: Returning to Nature"

“You should know in advance that this will be much harsher and more dangerous than the Nevada expedition.”
"All right.
But how much more harsh and dangerous can it be?”
“20 times.”
“Oh, then that’s fine.
I was afraid that it would be 50 times.”
"uh….
It could be 50 times.
It could be 70 times… .
Or 90 times.”
90x? Oh my goodness.
Yes, I am an Eagle Scout, a top Boy Scout with over twenty-one merit badges.
But surviving the brutal cold, the angry wild animals, the unforgiving terrain, building emergency stoves, constructing makeshift shelters, making tourniquets, and tying the right knots for any situation—all of these things had been forgotten since I discovered Evan Williams discount bourbon in college.
Tying a knot? I can barely tie my shoelaces.
At the level of a six-year-old child.

--- From "50, 70, or 90: Preparing to Come Back Alive"

“It’s a bit of a tight landing spot.
“Hold on tight.” A gust of wind pushes the aircraft backwards.
I found myself laughing without realizing it.
I'm flying hundreds of meters in this damn plane, at over 100 miles per hour, about to crash into the most dangerous place on Earth, and millions of years of human evolution whisper to me that I should avoid danger, yet I'm going beyond it and enjoying hell.
It was definitely stressful.
But the types were different.
It was a liberating stress.

--- From "163 Kilometers: The Correlation Between Being Alone and Health"

The 11 hours and 6 minutes of attention we give to digital media aren't free.
All this time is spent in a state of concentration.
Let's compare this state of concentration to lifting a heavy object and resting in a non-concentrated mode.
When we are distracted by our phones, TVs, computers, etc., our brains expend a huge amount of energy, just like when we repeat an exercise over and over again.
Eventually, overusing your attention will tire you out.
Modern life is taxing our brains.

--- From "11 Hours and 6 Minutes: Time Stolen by Digital Devices"

Today, bright and talented developers gather in the Behavioral Design Lab to research how to encourage people to stay in their apps longer.
So that you can see more ads.
Plus, they're freaking good at what they do.
For example, notifications on Twitter or likes on Instagram are designed to appear within seconds of a user opening the app.
This is not just a coincidence.
That short wait is like waiting for the wheel on a slot machine to spin.
It leverages the biological mechanisms that keep people coming back to apps.
The geniuses of Silicon Valley know exactly what tricks will attract us through big data, and idiots like me are helpless against their strategies.

--- From "11 Hours and 6 Minutes: Time Stolen by Digital Devices"

Ultra-processed foods are like cheap anti-anxiety medications that can be purchased over the counter anywhere.
As with tranquilizers, once the effects wear off, the stress remains.
So you have to take another pill or eat more junk food.
Side effects? Weight gain, heart disease, heart attack, cancer, high blood pressure, increased LDL cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, chronic fatigue, depression, osteoarthritis, pain, shortened lifespan, etc.
--- From "-4,000 Calories: Rediscovering Hunger"

The problem isn't potatoes, it's how we handle them.
The problem with all foods from nature, not just potatoes, is 'us'.
We instinctively tend to transform natural foods into dopamine-blasting foods.
For example, cut potatoes into small sticks or chips and fry them in hot oil.
Fifty percent of the potatoes produced in the United States are used in French fries, potato chips, and other processed potato products.
Alternatively, boil the potatoes, mash them, and mix in the butter and cream.
They are then baked and topped with butter, sour cream, and, in the American South, cheese and a rich meat sauce.
This dramatically increases the energy density of the food.
“In other words, it’s not a potato anymore.
“It just became a binge.”
--- From "-4,000 Calories: Rediscovering Hunger"

When we get tired or bored while working out at the gym, we sit down and rest.
Or drink cold beverages or purified water.
Or change the song on your smartphone.
After completing the set time, distance, sets and repetitions, you go into the sauna and sit down.
I'm not saying we should go back to the days when we had to struggle to find food to eat today.
Our comfortable world is great.
But as a result of our tendency toward comfort, our bodies are rarely challenged, and in return, we are losing health and strength.
--- From "45 Kilograms: The Weakest Man in History"

“We sterilize and disinfect everything.
Yet, we get sick, break, and fall more often.
“The immune system is losing its ability to discern what is actually harmful and what is not.”
If this trend continues, the human immune system will become “messy.”
When your immune system gets messed up, strange things happen.
For example, there is an over-protective response to foods that should be safe, such as peanuts.
Food allergies are disproportionately distributed among citizens of the most hygienic countries.
Ten percent of children under two years old have some degree of peanut allergy, and hospitalizations have doubled over the past decade.

--- From "81.2: Severe Discomfort Extends Life"