This is an interesting idea. What is also insightful is to change the starting position:

Imagine you were constantly in a deep sleep and now had to decide which moments of “your” day/month/year/decade you specifically wanted* to be woken up and remain awake for whatever time before you would sleep again.


I might be reading something interesting, like this thread that stimulates my curiosity and temporarily staves off most of the boredom, but still – I wouldn’t want to be woken up just so I read this and then go back to sleep immediately.

Of course everything that’s even less interesting, or is neutral, or horrible wouldn’t even be in the picture in the first place.
If you could chose what to experience in life, it probably would only consist of a few minutes, maybe hours, or, at most, -days- for most people.



But no, choice and avoidance of suffering is the exact opposite of how life works, you are forced to endure every bit of difference between “your” (imposed) target state and “your” (imposed) actual reality.

The difference between those two changes and it’s sometimes more horrible than at other times, and they even pretty much never align, and if they would or come close, it’s only very temporarily, and you are very soon pained again.


*where does that “want” even come from? It’s another type of constant suffering inherent in being alive.