There exists a peculiar intoxication that comes not from substance but from substance improvement…the high of getting higher, the rush of becoming more.
Consider the gym enthusiast who begins lifting weights to become stronger, but soon finds themselves addicted not to strength but to the feeling of gaining strength!
The number on the bar matters less than the fact that it's bigger than yesterday's number.
They chase the sensation of progress itself, that dopamine hit of achievement that makes all other pleasures seem pale by comparison.
This phenomenon scales remarkably well. The merchant who makes their first profit soon cares less about money than about making more money than last quarter.
The scholar who learns their first language immediately begins studying a second, not from need but from need to feel that expansion of capability.
Existence, it seems, has programmed consciousness to crave not just improvement but the sensation of improving.
