future

Pleasure Or Gratification? Which One Brings More Joy Into Your Life?

/ Stuart Danker / 50 Comments

Pleasure Food - Obi Onyeador

What do doughnuts, sex, and cocaine have in common? They’re pretty danged pleasurable, that’s what.

How about the post-workout high, acing the exams you’ve been studying hard for, and finishing the first draft of your novel? Awesome too, right?

Most of us would lump all of the above under happiness, and rightfully so, but there is a certain distinction between the two (which we’ll be exploring shortly).

We’ve all heard this before: delayed gratification is better than instant gratification. But why? Why is snorting coke off a stripper’s bum not as good as eating salad and working out?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the question of pleasure versus gratification.

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FICTION: The Great Machine

/ Stuart Danker / Leave a comment

FOREWORD: I submitted this piece to a submission call, but it got rejected, so here it is. My blog needed updates anyway.

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Sol was poring over the building plans when the front door flung open. He traced his fingers along floor 48.

“Babe, close the door,” Sol said. “The smog’s getting in.” When no reply came, he looked up to find a tear-stricken Jenn.

“What’s wrong?”

“They did it,” she said between sobs. “They s-stuck me like a pig.”

“What?”

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