Those who have suffered less must have missed out on something

"But perhaps because suffering costs us so much, we feel the need to place a kind of premium on it. We don’t like to think that our past suffering was in any way unnecessary or could have been avoided, for that would be to accept that life has been worse than it might otherwise have been for no further benefit. We think those who have suffered less must have missed out on something. It would pain us too much to simply accept that they have been more fortunate than us."