Nova: Simons, here's a question for you. You're driven, you're focused on growth, but have you ever had a day where you achieve a major goal, and instead of pure elation, there’s this quiet, nagging feeling of... 'Is that it?' or a subtle sense of emptiness?

Nova: Exactly. That fleeting, contradictory feeling is at the heart of a fascinating memoir we're discussing today, Baek Sehee's 'I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki.' Now, on the surface, it's a very personal account of therapy for persistent depression. But I think it's an unexpectedly powerful tool for anyone serious about self-improvement.

Nova: That's the idea. So today we'll dive deep into this from two perspectives. First, we'll explore that hidden friction many successful people feel, what the book calls the 'Hedgehog's Dilemma.' Then, we'll shift to a more analytical view, treating common cognitive distortions as 'bugs' in our mental software that we can learn to identify and debug for better performance.

Nova: Great. Let's start with that first idea, the 'Hedgehog's Dilemma.' The author, Baek Sehee, describes her condition, dysthymia, not as this devastating, can't-get-out-of-bed depression, but as a constant, low-grade 'ache in the mind.' She's functioning, she's holding down a job, she has friends, but she says she’s 'not-fine and not-devastated at the same time.' There's this persistent inner friction.

Nova: It absolutely does. And she finds this friction manifests most clearly in her relationships, which brings us to the Hedgehog's Dilemma. The concept, which her psychiatrist introduces, comes from a parable by Schopenhauer. Imagine a group of hedgehogs in the cold. They need to huddle together for warmth to survive, but if they get too close, their sharp quills prick each other. So they're caught in this painful dance, constantly shuffling closer for warmth and then pulling away from the pain, never finding that perfect, comfortable distance.

Nova: Tell me more. How do you see that playing out?