Life Can Throw You Some Curves. Here's How to Enjoy The Ride.

Lorraine Besser shares 5 key insights from The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It.

At the end of a topsy-turvy week, we thought we’d send you into the weekend with some interesting ideas — specifically, ideas from The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It, by

Lorraine Besser

. Lorraine is a professor of philosophy at Middlebury College, specializing in the philosophy and psychology of the good life. In her book, she argues that in addition to happiness and meaning, a key aspect of the well-lived life is psychological richness — what Lorraine calls “The Interesting.” Scroll down to hear Lorraine share her big ideas.

The 5 Key Insights:

1. The good life involves more than we’ve been told.

2. Psychological richness is important because interesting experiences are valuable.

3. Interesting experiences are up to you.

4. Lighten up the pursuit and open your mind.

5. You can call on the interesting in the darkest of times.

1. The good life involves more than we’ve been told.

For centuries, philosophers and psychologists have thought about “the good life” in terms of a basic dichotomy: it’s a matter of happiness, or of some form of meaning, or maybe both. These are important dimensions of the good life. Happiness is great. It’s the stuff that feels good, in the puppies and cuddles sort of way. And the good life involves finding meaning, be it through finding purpose, being a good person, or achieving something important. Meaning is how we experience fulfillment, make sense of our activities, and connect our lives to the world around us. Happiness and meaning are essential dimensions of the good life.

But look at how much gets squeezed out when we’re stuck in this dichotomy. If it doesn’t hit our feel-good channels or connect to something bigger and better than our present experience, then it’s got no role in the good life. What about rollercoaster rides and watching sad movies with your best friend? What about those random, chance encounters that leave you moved and occupy your mind for days? What about the simple thirst for experience? These things don’t fit neatly into the dichotomy of happiness and meaning, but they are important.

Psychologists have recently affirmed two important things: That people do think that these kinds of experiences are important to the good life, and that the state of psychological richness these experiences generate is its own category—not some kind of happiness or meaning in disguise. Psychological richness is a distinct dimension of the good life.

This is the most important advancement we’ve had in our understanding of the good life in our lifetimes. We have discovered a new dimension of the good life that has been overlooked for a very long time. Appreciating this will shake up how you think about the good life and might, finally, set you on the path you’ve been looking for.

Hear Lorraine’s recipe for a life of psychological richness: