JB’s privileged, happy life and supportive family have shielded him from many of life’s miseries. But not experiencing pain and suffering have made JB’s life boring and left him feeling unfulfilled. In this way, just as success doesn’t make a person happy, privilege doesn’t necessarily make a person feel that their life is worth living, either. Just as the book challenges the notion that people deserve the good or bad things that happen to them—that there is some moral, organizing principle that governs human existence—the book also challenges the notion that a good life is a happy life, and a bad life is an unhappy life. JB’s life has been objectively good—he has a supportive family, he has a successful career, and he has supportive friends, even if they’re currently going through a rough patch. Yet these good things don’t make JB happier than, say, Willem, who has endured unbearable loss and is the sole surviving member of his family.