The Great Escape Of The Mind

This week’s episode is another instalment of Blake’s meat computer trying to justify its own preferences.

There is this weird corner of internet bro hustle culture that deemed it inappropriate to watch sports because you’re acquiring joy from the success of others. You should be spending that time achieving your own successes. It’s religious, this dogmatic adherence to personal growth and delayed gratification.

Watching sports like many other things is a form of escapism (anything that allows you to distract yourself from real life).

While I think it’s fair to say that society can have an over-reliance on escapism, it’s important to note that there are healthy and unhealthy forms, as well as varying degrees of problematic escapism.

Let’s explore the “problem” I find myself in.

I’ve recently found myself entranced by worldbuilding. A process in which an author or creative, creates an entire lived-in fantasy world. This may be the ultimate form of escapism, you are concretizing a daydream. My particular penchant would be Dungeons & Dragons flavoured but things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Cosmere, the MCU and Dune are all examples in-depth fantasy worlds.

There is a guilt associated with this. In that, why do I need to spend my time daydreaming about a fantasy world? Is my current life not good enough?

I suppose for starters no matter how awesome my life gets, I’m never gonna learn to train a dragon or have magic powers. Unless Elon really steps his game up.

But, I think I can also make a case that this is one of the most positive forms of escapism and actually has utility in other areas of life.

IQ tests measure what’s known as decontextualized reasoning. A subset of problem-solving that focuses on problems which have inherently undefined answers.

What better way to improve your problem-solving ability than to solve an entire world of undefined answers. Undefined because you’re literally making them up as you go along.

Beyond that it flexes your creative muscles in as pure a way as possible. And, depending on your enjoyment level could be one of the easiest ways to train yourself to enter a flow state. Also, by nature of the vastness, it forces you to think on long time scales and helps pull you out of day-to-day timelines.

We’ve talked about how that supports greater happiness. Also, regular mental exercise (crosswords, painting, puzzles, sudoku, building an epic fantasy world) is also one of the best ways to prevent late life neurodegenerative conditions.

The nihilists might suggest that escapism is a modern occurrence. Come about thanks to our increasingly mundane lives where we take no satisfaction in our daily existence. As a side note for the people who romanticize living in a homestead and returning to “the olden days”, go one week handwashing your clothes and come back to me.

However, there are countless examples recorded fantasies dating back to hundreds or even thousands of years before the Common Era. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey and some dialogues from Plato, to name a few.

Knowing then, that escapism is a feature and not a bug of human existence all that matters is the form you choose to embrace.

From what I’ve been able to conclude escapism seems to fall into a four quadrant graph, similar to an Eisenhower Matrix. How healthy an activity is depends roughly on which quadrant it falls in.

As with any good graph, you want to be as far up and to the right as possible!

I hope by now you know how much I hate moral grandstanding. This isn’t intended to be that. But, I can tell you from first hand experience, my life improved (and I feel more fulfilled) as I moved my hobbies from left to right on the graph.

Where you choose to escape to can be superior fuel your real life by fostering creativity, problem-solving, happiness and relaxation. If you let it.

NEW Mini Section: Words I Wish I Wrote

I’m gonna include one of my favourite quotes or things I’ve read recently here each week.

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