I enjoyed your essay and the way you employ humor to make your points, but the conclusion appears to be an abrupt 180-degree turn from the evidence you cite and the logic you employ. Personally, as someone who’s found evolutionary psychology useful because alone among the “social sciences” it can make unique testable predictions, I suspect our evolutionary hardwiring is more often dominant in our quotidian lives that we recognize.

One anecdote: ten years ago I was at an alumni gathering in San Francisco. My (younger) wife and I met another couple and sat chatting with them for a while because they were so interesting. A few older men were milling around including one who was short and balding and in no way distinguished. No one was paying him any notice.

After a while the Vice-Chancellor tapped his glass to get our attention and began by thanking this short balding individual for his generous $75 million contribution to the university.

The effect was instantaneous. Our wives, along with every other woman in the room, fastened their eyes upon the individual concerned and spent the rest of the evening clustered around him, hanging on his every word, their body-language shouting “take me! take me!”

As neither of our wives had humdrum jobs and already enjoyed comfortable stress-free lifestyles, I don’t think escape from the quotidian was in any way a motivation…