One might wonder, in a world of perfect ease and freedom and safety, what the value of confrontation and competition and even a certain amount of disagreeableness is. We live in a world that worships comfort and being surrounded with and told whatever makes us feel good.

And of course there is immense value in it, and agreeability is a wonderful balance to make our lives pleasant and place restraints on competition and confrontation and other such predatory survival instincts. We want useful monsters (as well as comfortable companions), after all, guard dogs and working dogs, not wild packs of wolves.

In a world with no enemies, no real threats, in which all paths we take are merely games, and peace and safety and luxury are the default state and result and inheritance of all, it’s easy to lose sight of the utility of anything that isn’t just affirming us and making us feel good. Surgeons are pretty bad at making you feel good. In order to do what they do they have to be able to confront problems without worrying overmuch about the person in front of them.