The Comfortable Life Isn't Killing You

The Most Popular Text I've Ever Written

"Man has achieved his present position by being the most aggressive and enterprising creature on earth. And now he has created a comfortable civilization, he faces an unexpected problem... The comfortable life lowers man's resistance, so that he sinks into an unheroic sloth... The comfortable life causes spiritual decay."

The Colin Wilson quote is how Erik Rittenberry from

Poetic Outlaws

starts one of his most successful posts, “The Comfortable Life is Killing You.” He follows it with statistics on depression and overdoses in America, research on the psychological impact of social media, and quotes from Viktor Frankl, Khalil Gibran, Ernest Becker, and, like many recovering Christian dudes navigating the line between mysticism and psychology, Carl Jung. The article ends with a conclusion written by AI.

I don’t judge Erik. I could only tell it was written by an LLM before plugging it into zerogpt.com and sapling.ai because I also experimented with ChatGPT when I felt rushed and lonesome.

Like many of the poets Erik praises, I’ve spent much of my adult life writing, travelling, and wandering alone. Yet, unlike those old poets, I have AI, and I’ve concluded we shouldn’t applaud a solitary life in a world where Big Tech capitalizes on physical withdrawal and diminishing community values. Unless, of course, you yourself capitalize on using social media and AI. Anyway, I didn’t want to call Erik out on that in the comments.

Instead, I wrote:

I’ve actually designed my adult life around the kind of discomfort this article advocates for. My income is inconsistent. I’ve lived in countries where I don’t (didn’t) speak the language. I’m often seeking out nature (admittedly, not enough in the wild), unfamiliarity, and silence (well, when I can find silence in Comunidad Valencia).

I’ve deleted all social media except for Substack Notes, which I check a few hours a week at most lately. I’ve kind of done the digital detox and the wilderness adventures. And I still often wake up anxious and depressed. Feelings of fulfilment are usually fleeting in my case.

So what’s my deal? I’ve rejected some forms of comfort, well, stability compared to peers. Yet, I often feel hollow.

Maybe it’s cause I’ve built my life around writing cause I thought it gave me meaning. I guess meaning gets slippery when the self you believe you are starts contradicting the self the world reflects back. As Viktor Frankl wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” When the thing that once gave you purpose no longer aligns with external reality—when the world doesn’t mirror back your efforts—it can start to feel like you’re living someone else’s story.

After 14 years of failing to become a “professional” writer, I wonder: was this ‘man’s search for meaning’ a lie I told myself? Who the hell really am I?

It makes me think of the Leonard Cohen quote:

I fought against the bottle,

But I had to do it drunk—

Took my diamond to the pawnshop—But that don’t make it junk.”

Plus, I’ve been guilty of what Rollo May said: “It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.” I think I’ve slowed down, at least my actions have. I write less, in other words. But my mind? I don’t know.

I’ve been allowing myself to enjoy comfort the past month because chasing meaning through discomfort hasn’t actually helped my anxiety or depression. Maybe it’s not just about getting uncomfortable but about realizing that our despair might not be coming from comfort but disconnection. From a fractured identity, like a mismatch between some inner truth and outer feedback.

So yeah, sure, comfort can dull us. But meaninglessness doesn’t only arise from ease and modern conveniences. I think that sometimes it comes from giving your everything to something and realizing that what you thought gave you meaning isn't actually what you should be doing. And that hurts in a place no hustle, hardship, or comfort can fix. But who knows, my response might be different in a few hours because I'm one of those people who experience everything super intensely. Some of us are just sensitive as well. Soft? I dunno.

But I gotta ask you, man. I can't imagine a more comfortable life than making thousands of dollars a month writing about poetry and what you love. You choose your own schedule, work from anywhere you want, and don’t have to deal with shitty people (just a few comments like this one). Is it killing you?

It’s the most successful text I have ever written.

Thanks to Erik, I finally know how it feels when hundreds of people like what I wrote—it feels just the same. Getting paid for the work and words gives you the hit. Don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit.

And look, I don’t know Erik. His account was Instagram-famous long before AI could create content like his. When I still had Instagram, he was among the only people posting material that added depth to my scroll. I can imagine the hours he spent researching and creating posts. That’s why I became a paid subscriber for a couple of months.

I also followed his epic camping posts, but whether you find writing about poetry as you escape into the wild comfortable or uncomfortable is up to you.

"What white people want for vacation is what black people are trying to escape."

— Trevor Noah

Suffering is subjective. I don’t know Erik’s history or what he’s going through. Maybe setting up a tent is really hard for him. Plus, as a successful writer and content creator, he has to deal with an unfortunate caveat: readers. He told one of them, “You bore me. Suffer more. Talk less.” And again, who am I to judge? I believe he’s heeding his own advice. To respond like that to a reader, one must be suffering through their comment section. Plus, maybe using an LLM is just his way of talking less to humans.

Sure, it’s a bit worrisome when someone who has written about the importance of the artistic process uses an LLM. But let’s be honest, AI doing some work for you as you rack up paid subscribers and find more free time to do what you love doesn’t sound that bad. In fact, it sounds rather comfortable.

By the way, pointing out a few of Erik’s hypocrisies doesn’t mean I don’t respect the guy. As

Alberto Romero

from

The Algorithmic Bridge

said, “Taste matters now more than ever before in history.” And Erik’s got some of the best taste in poets, philosophers, musicians, and American camping spots out there. I recommend subscribing to

Poetic Outlaws

, but remember this: Beware of people who quote Carl Jung too much.

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Born Without Borders is a reader-supported guide to stripping away social constructs, building bridges across divides, cultural psychology, and how to salir de las fronteras que impone tu mente. If you want to support my work, the best way is to take out a paid subscription for $5/month or $30/year. Please share this article if you enjoyed it!

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