How the Art of the Interesting Makes for a Good Life

This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
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Weekend Reading

According to philosophy professor Lorraine Besser, living a “good life” involves more than just happiness and meaning; it also requires cultivating psychological richness through interesting experiences.

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By mastering "the interesting," you can enhance your life in meaningful ways, even during difficult times. Here five key insights:

📌 The “Good Life” Has Three Dimensions: Beyond happiness and meaning, psychological richness—marked by novelty, curiosity, and cognitive stimulation—emerges as a crucial third dimension of the good life

📌 Interesting Experiences Have Value: Psychological richness stems from engaging with the new, challenging, and stimulating. This "interesting" quality brings life-altering thoughts and emotions.

📌 You Control the Interesting: Unlike happiness or meaning, which depend on external factors, interesting experiences are within your control. Curiosity and creativity can generate these moments at any time.

📌 Loosen the Grip on Pursuit: Constantly chasing goals can close your mind to the interesting. By easing up on rigid plans, you allow space for serendipitous, psychologically rich experiences.

📌 Find the Interesting in Dark Times: Even in hardship, psychological richness can exist. By taking a curious perspective, you can find moments of engagement that offer solace and mental escape.

Key Takeaways: If you pursue the "art of the interesting", you can create a powerful tool that elevates your life, filling the gaps where happiness or meaning may fall short.