let's take a moment to rest our eyes
some things still fit just right (not everything is lost)
maybe your brain needs soothing? mine does. and if you’re not close enough to a large body of water to stare at, things fitting perfectly into other things can help a lot too (see also things fitting perfectly, and most currently active of all, r/Perfectfit)
important criteria beyond the basic obvious:
materials must be crisp. If you can squish the objects into place to make the fit, that’s unsatisfying.
components must be unrelated. If they were meant to fit together, it doesn’t count! The joy is in the unexpected sacrament, a gift from the universe - we weren’t meant to match up like this, but we do, and oh so well
it’s gotta be more interesting than just another thing that fits tightly wedged under a low shelf
an idea is a greater monument than a cathedral
r/oddlysatisfying shows us that some things can be satisfying even with flexible materials:
…but that’s different. It’s not about the serendipity of perfect fit, it’s more about joy we take in a well-executed human endeavour
(I actually just read these all as a combined reddit feed of pure satisfaction)
our time is all that we have. spend it joyfully.
Josh Callaghan really gets this sort of thing right, too:
are you rotting inside your house right now?
if you want to just be happy, maybe consider studying salps instead
"You get the benefit of the clear water and the benefit of snorkelling in bubble tea. Who could ask for anything more?"
- Dr. Lisa-Ann Gershwin (on whom I definitely do not have an intense crush right now, obvs)
there are so many important salp questions asked and answered out there
“Unrelated, if my child accidentally swallowed six to eight salps while swimming, would that be bad? Is swimming with salps dangerous? Can they swim into any orifices?” - Emily Writes
“…They are not strong swimmers and they are pretty large, so I think the chance of them swimming into orifices is small.” - Dr Moira Décima
not everything is lost.
When I worked a corporate job, the Taunton Press poster of the Studley Tool Chest hung in my office for inspiration. And I also saw it when it was being displayed at the Smithsonian.