Today I fixed some chairs and it was the most satisfying thing I did all day.

My wife bought some used chairs yesterday, and she noticed after bringing them home that they were a little wobbly. This evening, I pulled out my tools and started tightening screws to see if I could fix the problem.

In the process, I discovered that one of the chairs had been put together incorrectly, with two of the legs having been swapped. Because it was put together wrong, it was very wobbly and some of the pieces were jammed together at crooked angles.

Being able to sit down with a set of tools, diagnose a problem, and make the world a better place in just half an hour is a wonderful thing to experience. It wasn’t a big fix, but it greatly improves the experience of sitting in those chairs.

I think everybody needs moments like this. Everyone needs to experience regularly the satisfaction of problem-solving on a short timescale. Most of the things I do on a daily basis do not give me immediate rewards, and that makes it important that I find things that do give me immediate satisfaction—running, cooking, and playing with my daughter are examples that come to mind.