SUFFERLESS: The Science & Philosophy of Reducing Suffering

Genre: Big Idea Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science

Details: 550 pages (6x9 trade), ~126,000 words, 1,200+ citations

Release date: February 3rd, 2026

PREORDER NOW

* Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Walmart

* First Edition released in English by Sufferless Publishing.

* Portion of profits will be donated to The Sufferless Foundation.

ADD REVIEW ON GOODREADS

ABOUT THE BOOK

What if the purpose of life isn’t to seek happiness, but to suffer less?

We measure progress in lifespan, wealth, and technology—yet suffering persists everywhere. Sufferless reframes progress itself: the true measure is not how long we live or how much we own, but how well we reduce the burden of suffering, from the self to society.

Blending science, philosophy, and practical insight, Sufferless reveals how suffering emerges whenever stress exceeds capacity across the physical, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual domains—and how that simple equation can guide everything from our health and relationships to our institutions and future.

Across six parts, the book travels from the philosophy of suffering to the nature of knowledge and perception, through self-actualization, the dynamics of relationships, and the structures of society—culminating in the applied design of a sufferless world, including the ethical implications for artificial intelligence. Along the way, it translates even the most politically divisive issues into the shared language of suffering—helping bridge divides through our universal human experience.

By the end, you’ll hold a compass for reducing suffering—within yourself, between one another, and across the systems that shape our world.

Part science, part philosophy, part compass, Sufferless invites readers to imagine a world where less suffering is not just possible, but the very definition of progress.

BOOK DETAILS

A Compass for a Complex World

Modern life has outgrown its instruments. We measure economies in GDP, success in status, and health in longevity—but none of these metrics tell us whether we are actually suffering less.

Sufferless begins with a simple equation:

Suffering = Stress > Capacity

From this foundation, it builds a unified framework for understanding how suffering arises—and how it can be reduced—across biology, psychology, relationships, and society.

The Framework

The book traces a clear progression:

Philosophy of Suffering – why pain is information, not the enemy.
Knowledge and Perception – how our minds distort truth and create invisible suffering.
The Self – biological and psychological misalignments that keep us in cycles of stress.
Relationships – how suffering spreads between people, and how to realign together.
Society – how institutions amplify or relieve collective pain.
Applied Design – how to build systems that make the path of least suffering the easiest to follow.

Each part fuses scientific rigor with accessible narrative, connecting insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychology, systems theory, and philosophy into a single cohesive model.

A Living Philosophy

Where many frameworks stop at theory, Sufferless extends into action. The ideas in the book are embodied through The Sufferless Foundation, a nonprofit that translates the philosophy into measurable standards, certifications, and indices. The Foundation’s charter—Sense, Certify, Guide, Protect—makes the philosophy operational, turning compassion into a system that can be audited.

Grounded in Science, Guided by Compassion

The book is under peer review and supported by over 1,200 citations drawn from leading research in biology, psychology, medicine, systems theory, and ethics. Every claim is traceable, every model transparent. Yet the writing remains human—an invitation to curiosity rather than dogma.

Through vivid case studies and narrative storytelling, Sufferless moves between the cellular and the societal, exploring how everything from mitochondria to economies follows the same rule: when stress exceeds capacity, suffering emerges.

The Aim

This is not a self-help manual or abstract philosophy. It is a blueprint for measurable compassion—a science of progress grounded in the reduction of unnecessary suffering. By translating suffering into data, meaning into design, and compassion into structure, Sufferless offers a new compass for civilization: one that points not toward perfection, but toward relief.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Zach Charles is an American writer, filmmaker, and lifelong student of science, educated at the University of Southern California. He has explored the complexities of the human condition through the cinematic arts, while his

scientific literacy grounds him in critical thinking-together giving him a unique perspective on how we confront suffering. Known for undertaking dangerous pursuits safely-from aviation to skydiving- he lives the Sufferless philosophy by minimizing suffering not through avoidance of stress, but by expanding his capacity to meet it physically, psychologically, intellectually, and spiritually. He is the founder of The Sufferless Foundation, dedicated to turning the ideas of the Sufferless book into measurable reductions of suffering on a global scale.

New to social media, accounts launch Nov 25th:

INSTAGRAM

X (Twitter)

sneak PREVIEW of sufferless

PREFACE

To progress is to suffer less.

In other words—the less you suffer, the less suffering you cause, and the less suffering society inflicts is the most objective metric of “progress.” Ironic, given the subjective experience of suffering, and a paradox seemingly impossible to resolve. But despite the quixotic quest to eliminate it from existence, it’s far from futile to ask, “How can we progress by reducing suffering?” The point of this question (and this book) isn’t the answer, it’s the question itself. This thought process enables us to inquisitively examine everything through the subjective lens of suffering to form the most objective perspective on the state of progress that we can.

Suffering is a universal spiritual experience shared by all living beings, not just us humans. And to ask the question, “How can we alleviate suffering?” is to embark on a spiritual quest. Yes, it sounds a bit hippy-dippy, and my eyes are rolling too, but really spirituality just asks existential questions and follows the resulting thoughts wherever they lead—the antithesis of religion, which provides immutable answers to lead its followers.

Curiosity powers the ship of spirituality whose compass heading is the question being asked. It requires letting go of preconceived answers and being willing to say, “I don’t know.” Not coincidentally, the foundational principle of science. So, where does this bearing guide us? Hopefully to many uncharted islands of knowledge hidden in a vast ocean of information. But what is knowledge? How do we know that we’ve discovered real knowledge and not just a mirage manifested in our desperation for answers? How do we discern knowledge and fact from misinformation and fiction? And once we’ve obtained that knowledge, how do we retain and apply it to guide our endless quest towards a sufferless existence that’s seemingly always just beyond the horizon?

These are just some of the questions that our initial question raises. Before we can start our journey, we must first be willing to acknowledge the possibility that the metaphorical land from which we’re departing isn’t all that there is in the world. We must allow curiosity to power us past waves of unfounded information to discover shores of knowledge, and be open to updating our course in light of newfound insight. Even if, especially if, that knowledge cuts loose the anchor to what we once thought we knew. The horizon moves as we move. And knowing that we will never quite reach the answer to our question that forever lies past the horizon, still striving to progress towards it, to suffer less.

Life is bound by suffering; it only truly ceases to exist at the very end. As an individual when life ends, and as a collective when we reach the conclusion of progress, at infinity. But just because we can’t completely escape suffering, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to govern its many superfluous sources. We must aspire to cultivate a world whose sufferless soil allows happiness to comfortably take root and flourish. This is our endless endeavor.

Before we can ask the ultimate question, “How do we reduce the suffering of all living beings?”, we must first contemplate a hierarchy of questions on top of which that very question is built:

• How do we eliminate the suffering of (and by) the human collective?

• How do we use knowledge of the mechanisms that reduce suffering to inform public policy and shape the society in which we live?

• How do we provide the individual with the knowledge and tools to eliminate their own suffering?

• How does an individual activate their behavioral plasticity so they can effectively use these tools?

• How do we empower an individual to discover and discern the knowledge to guide their behavioral changes for themselves?

• How do we enable our curiosity to even start our search for knowledge?

• How do we free ourselves from beliefs and behaviors that cause unnecessary suffering and hinder our very ability to progress?

To be a living being is to suffer. By this very definition, if something can’t experience suffering, then it isn’t alive. Suffering is as inseparable from life as gravity is from the fabric of the universe—both drive their creations as well as their self-destructions. Gravity coalesces stars and planets and entire galaxies into existence, but can also obliterate them when matter collapses on itself into a black hole. Suffering drives a behavior of avoidance which propels an individual to survive, but can also consume oneself when overwhelmed by its sheer weight. The force of gravity connects all physical objects in the known universe, and the sensation of suffering unites all living subjects in a shared struggle.

But what makes us truly unique as humans is that we imbue existence with the manufactured meaning of our beliefs in attempt to escape suffering. However, it’s not something to be escaped, but solved. To derive meaning through this endeavor, instead of conjuring fabricated convictions to drive our beliefs, creates an existential purpose grounded in reality. The answer to the meaning of life IS the question, “How can we suffer less?” The goal is not the destination, but the meaning in course we chart towards the horizon we never reach.

Preorder now