It might be a case of being attracted to something that otherwise doesn’t bring satisfaction in some fundamentally important ways? I can think of quite a few human activities and hobbies that would fit that bill; we call them “passions” or “obsessions”.
You’d be right. For one thing, they don’t starve in there.
Being an artist on the side is a great thing (see Thomas Jefferson), but being a pure artist usually seems to lead to a very miserable life.
And yet scores of thousands of people still want to do it each year, which suggests that the intangibles must be incredible.
It might be a case of being attracted to something that otherwise doesn’t bring satisfaction in some fundamentally important ways? I can think of quite a few human activities and hobbies that would fit that bill; we call them “passions” or “obsessions”.