The Curse of Thinking too Deeply

I watched this video from Pursuit of Wonder about a Philosophy professor. He needed to undergo a surgery or he would risk a high chance of getting killed by his emerging mental ailments. If he chose to go forward with the operation the front part of his brain that processes the information he uses to teach his classes and write books would be greatly impaired. When discussing this with another professors he said:

"Wouldn't you be dead anyways... if you go through with the surgery, and it took from you what makes you who you are?"

You could take many things from this story. What it means to me at this time of listening to it is what would he have to live for? He could still have meaningful relationships and do fun things I suppose. As I think about my life there was an era growing up when just having those type of things would be enough, having fun or being with friends. I didn't think through my day to day living in quite the same way, not as I do now at least. Over the years, I would say particularly in the years entering adulthood, there is no way I could make that trade. That tool-set is how I cope with the world and how I work through problems.

The way his father said ignorance is bliss, no, not in any ultimate sense it isn't. Putting off hard topics may make you happy for a moment but you may not realize the shear amount of suffering caused if you chose to not discuss your issues. There is especially an importance in doing so with others as you work towards some resolution.

A strange paradox came to my mind as I thought about why I would be opposed to undergoing this type of surgery. Why was it there were parts of my life where I was open to doing work which was not using this part of my thought process at all? I'm not sure I can answer that. Why would I place so much focus on pure business and sometimes place so little focus on the more important parts of life comparably?