A short book distilling Hans Selye's groundbreaking technical work The Stress of Life into practical principles for handling daily life. Articulates a basic philosophy that can be boiled down to "earn thy neighbor's love." Selye calls this "altruistic egotism" and argues that satisfaction in life can be achieved by seeking genuinely satisfying work, earning the goodwill and gratitude of others through that work, and by living with a philosophy of gratitude.
Not his finest book, but it is interesting and useful to hear the values and prescriptive statements of one of biology's most eminent scientists. The ideas in this book are not original--the author candidly admits as much--but offer helpful guideposts for how to live.
Notes:
1) The first chapter is essentially a layperson's summary of Selye's main work The Stress of Life, defining key terms, what he means (in biological terms) when he talks about stress, describing the evolution of the stress concept across medical history, etc. He defines "stress" as the body's response to a stressor, and the severity of that stress can be thought of as the effort required for the body to return to its prior state (homeostasis). He then examines this conceptual framework at various scale levels: on the cellular level (cells fighting a toxin), the whole person level (avoiding a drunk person insulting you), or societal or civilizational level (communities or even nation-states engaging with each other).
2) Stress can be unpleasant or pleasant; total freedom from stress is (technically) death. The stress can be direct (a burn or a pathogen) or indirect (e.g., a response to something not pathogenic or not damaging, like hay fever), and the body's response can be catatoxic (the body destroys or attacks the stressor) or syntoxic (the body walls off or lives with the stressor). These biology-based explanations likewise are metaphors/models for living with stressors in life.
3) French physiologist Claude Bernard describing a steady internal state of an organism (le milieu intérieur) despite changes in the external environment. He scratches at the idea of homeostasis without using the term.
4) Heterostasis, raising the body's resistance and ability to adapt, as a mechanism for responding positively to distress, disease etc. Heterostasis (changing our homeostatic set-point) as a concept to give us guidelines for behavior in daily life.
5) Chapter 2: Motivation
Altruistic egotism: collaboration/interdependence among cells, among separate living beings, collaboration among societies, etc.
6) "Though decisions based on logic are safer, it is emotion that induces a man to sacrifice his life for his country, to marry for love, to commit sadistic crimes, or to join a religious order; he uses logic--if at all--only afterward, to rationalize the emotional act and to pursue his course more efficiently." Ouch!
7) Gratitude and goodwill versus hatred and revenge as emotions that account for the absence or presence of harmful stress.
8) Psychological and chemical conditioning, on the individual person level or the cellular level. Examples where brief periods of exposure to stress may result in a gain or a loss. This can be done locally, to produce a local resistance like inflammation or adaptation (or tissue breakdown), or systemically. It can be largely within our power to respond constructively to a given stress once we know the rules of the game. We can respond through use of chemicals, medical treatment, or in the case of interpersonal stress we navigate it with the help of a sound philosophy of personal conduct.
9) "The average citizen would suffer just as much from the boredom of purposeless subsistence as from the inevitable fatigue created by the constant compulsive pursuit of perfection; in other words, the majority equally dislike a lack of stress and an excess of it. Hence each of us must carefully analyze himself and try to find a particular stress level in which he feels most comfortable, whatever occupation he selects. Those who do not succeed in this analysis will either suffer the distress of having nothing worthwhile to do or being constantly overtaxed by excessive activity."
10) The synergy of teamwork: see social heterostasis examples like WWII London during the Blitz or Russians during the siege of Leningrad.
11) Note the periodicity of various biological functions (sleep, recovery, etc). Likewise, blocking the fulfillment of man's natural drives causes as much distress as any stress. Ignoring this leads to frustration, fatigue, and exhaustion.
12) Stress on one system of the body helps to relax another. A workout following a mental challenge like a math problem.
13) "Deprivation of motivation is the greatest mental tragedy because it destroys all guidelines. The man who knows he suffers from an incurable disease and has nothing left to work for, the billionaire to whom any further accumulation of wealth would be meaningless, the truly blasé person or 'congenital pensioner' who finds no satisfaction in rising above the minimum level needed for comparatively painless survival, are all equally unhappy." He has a point here. "Motivation to accomplish something that really satisfies you and hurts no one is essential."
14) "Man must work. I think we have to begin by clearly realizing that work is a biological necessity. Just as our muscles become flabby and degenerate if not used, so our brain slips into chaos and confusion unless we constantly use it for some work that seems worthwhile to us."
"There is nothing wrong with retirement as long as one doesn't allow it to interfere with one's work."
--Benjamin Franklin
"The question is not whether we should or should not work, but what kind of work suits us best."
15) Aging is a form of stress, ultimately resulting in "stage of exhaustion" or death. Each period of stress, especially if it results from unsuccessful struggles, leave some irreversible accumulation of the signs of tissue aging. Aging pigments accumulate in the cells of old people, especially in the heart and liver, calcium deposits in the arteries and joints and the eye, all illustrate this form of aging. Likewise minor vascular and tissue damage gradually replaced by connective scar tissues, in the heart, brain, etc.
Successful activity leaves you with comparatively few such scars. It causes stress, but little, if any, distress. On the contrary it provides you with the exhilarating feeling of youthful strength, even at a very advanced age. Many of the most eminent among the hard workers and almost any field lived a long life. In a sense none of them ever "worked" at all: they lived a life of constant leisure by always doing what they like to do.
Chapter 3: What Is the Aim of Life?
16) "To remain healthy, man must have some goal, some purpose in life that he can respect and be proud to work for."
17) Distinguishing between means and an aim: Money, for example, which is a means to reaching some aim, like philanthropy.
18) Short-term versus long-term goals, near-term gratification versus long-term satisfaction.
19) Selye offers the reader an interesting guideline to avoid collecting items or hoarding things due to biological self-preservation instincts, and instead to collect the most valuable commodity that man can collect: a "capital" stock of goodwill from other men, due to his service to others, in whatever form that service might take.
20) "Man's ultimate aim in life is to express himself as fully as possible, according to his own lights, and to achieve a sense of security."
21) "Setting a goal for excellence, rather than setting a goal for perfection, which can only lead to frustration."
"Fight for your highest attainable aim
but never put up resistance in vain."
22) Avoiding censure versus seeking approval as motivations. "I will freely admit that I am as proud as a peacock of any recognition and approval that I may have earned. And why shouldn't I be?" See also Cato the Elder responding to a Roman statesman scandalized that there was no statue of him: "No. I would rather have people ask why isn't there a statue to Cato then why is there one?"
23) Hungering for peak accomplishment: the little French cobbler who saw his experience losing his leg in the "noble defeat" of the French army as his peak experience, the summit of his existence.
24) Modesty, immodesty, and pseudomodesty.
25) "In any event, all that I have said here is not really new; it has been the basis of most religions and philosophies of conduct throughout the ages... However, this lack of originality does not disturb me; it only reinforces my conviction that they are basic facts."
26) "A code which reconciles the timeless natural drives [egotism, self-preservation] that, as long as they are in conflict, cause most of mankind's mental distress."
Chapter 4: To Earn Your Neighbor's Love
27) Problems with the dictum "love thy neighbor as thyself" (it's ordered by a supreme being; it is very difficult, even impossible, to love someone who is genuinely reprehensible; it contradicts biological urge to survive and the central egotism of all biological beings; etc.), so Selye tweaks it to "earn thy neighbor's love," which is an agency-based idea, the actions are up to us. It gives purpose for work, to earn your neighbor's love the aim is to make oneself as useful as possible.
28) Some fundamental questions: what is love? Who is your neighbor? How can you earn love?
29) Investing in yourself, your own learning, your own ability to offer usefulness to others, this is a much more valuable source of wealth than, for example, the power of an aristocrat or some elite politician who could be left destitute after some unpredictable event.
29) "The only treasure that is yours forever is your ability to earn the love of your neighbors... what you have learned is yours for life and is your safest investment." It's a really intriguing idea: to build a capital stock of goodwill that you have earned through your usefulness to others, that you can tap into if necessary in the future.
30) "I have always advised my children and students not to worry so much about saving money or about climbing up to the next rung on the ladder of their career, and attitude which seems to be an obsession with highly motivated people, concerned about economic security. It is much more important to work at perfecting yourself and thereby insure your usefulness no matter what fate does to you."
Chapter 5: Résumé
31) "To earn goodwill helps all and hurts nobody." It provides a natural code of ethics, and a purpose.
32) Egotism is a fundamental, unavoidable and inherent element of life: those cells or organisms that could not protect themselves ceased to exist and disappeared from chain of evolution. At the same time pure egocentrism can create dangerous antagonisms. Thus altruism was introduced for egotistic reasons, and it added to survival advantages.
33) Activity is a biological necessity. Whether we call it work or play depends on our attitude towards it, it's a good idea to be on friendly terms with our job/work, or find "play professions" that are pleasant, useful, and constructive.
34) Choose carefully between syntoxic and catatoxic behavior in daily life. The choice between submission/coexistence and attack. "This choice is of vital importance on all levels of biological organization, from single cells all the way to man, families of men, and even nations."
35) "Man, with his highly developed central nervous system, is especially vulnerable to psychic insults, and there are various little tricks to minimize these. Here are a few that I have found useful:
* Even if you systematically want to hoard love don't waste your time trying to befriend a mad dog.
* Admit that there is no perfection, but in each category of achievement something is tops; be satisfied to strive for that.
* Do not underestimate the delight of real simplicity in your lifestyle: avoidance of all affectations and unnecessary complications earns as much goodwill and love as pompous artificiality earns dislike.
* Remembering the pleasant days, trying to forget everything that is irrevocably ugly or painful.
* Take stock of your successes and your past achievements, this reestablishes self-confidence necessary for future success. There is something even in the most modest career that we are proud to recall - you would be surprised to see how much this can help when everything seems hopeless.
* When faced with a painful task don't procrastinate. Cut right into an abscess to eliminate it, instead of prolonging it by gently rubbing the surface.
Reading List:
Pair with Breaking Out of Homeostasis by Ludvig Sunström
The Stress of Life by Hans Selye