This is probably THE question. Far more than the answer to the universe, life, and everything. Anyone who thinks about it understands humanity. Or at least, gets excellent clues.
Down the rabbit hole we go.
The evolutionary basis of dissatisfaction
Easy starting concept: we are the product of evolution. Therefore the human tendency toward the unreachable must be a quality useful for survival, otherwise it wouldn't exist.
And the useful quality tied to this tendency is equally simple: our ancestors who were most inclined to never settle had greater chances of surviving the night or having full stomachs.
Spontaneously our biology would have us idle as much as possible to save energy. But those of us who had an impulse to "hustle" even when they could have relaxed — the impulse to prepare a safe sleeping spot, plan a trap, choose a path to more fertile ground — statistically survived more than the others.
So this genetic "restlessness" and "dissatisfaction" survived and reached most of us. Because it worked.
The dopamine switch
It manifests in the mind-blowing benefits anyone gets from simply taking action on the world. There's a hardwired switch in us that releases endorphins and dopamine when we try to reach a difficult goal. It rewards us.
Depression comes harder to those who rise each morning with energy and a mission. A project.
From myths to the hero's journey
This natural tendency was sublimated over time into the core values of many civilizations, myths, religions, ethics, and epics. Almost everywhere, ants are respected more than crickets.
Nearly every religion has an origin myth where humans are driven toward a mission of change. Nearly every successful company is founded on someone with a mission to transform the world.
You have the hero's journey: the quintessential narrative framework, which is nothing but the "call to an impossible goal" in the heart of a person living a peaceful life. But they must move. Leave their little village. Their safe cottage. It's the fundamental drive — the call to battle, to struggle as a value in itself.
From Star Trek to Ulysses
Further transfigured into the obsession with discovery. Initially it made us leave the savanna and colonize the globe despite danger. It took us to the Moon and will take us to Mars. There's a reason Star Trek makes hearts race: it's the manifestation of this archetypal element.
Our species is Dante's Ulysses. The character whom not even devoted love for Penelope or his old father can restrain from pushing into ever more suicidal ventures far from home and comfort. For the sole purpose of discovering and going where no one has gone before.
The dark side: Leopardi was right
Not everything is rosy. This tendency can be exhausting for those who can't control it. Because it means never being satisfied. It's described by the law of diminishing returns. And that's bad news: it implies an all-too-rapid saturation of pleasure, against an infinite road of effort.
Which is why anyone who thinks wealth — money, fame, sex, social capital — is the answer has understood nothing about being human. And is inevitably destined for sadness, if not suicide, should they have too many of these goods at once.
It means we are all potentially Leopardi.
The Saturday in the village is the only pleasant moment in our existence as animals coded by the instinct of dissatisfaction. It's the instant that arrives exactly after the end of a struggle and a moment before we begin feeling the exhausting yearning that calls us back to battle. The only moment of pleasure before the anxiety of preparing for the next challenge — that is, Sunday.
