Member-only story
Is This How You Stop Time?
Efficiency and optimization are not worthy goals
The greatest lie in modern society is that we should all strive to optimize our lives — to become efficient in our personal and professional spheres.
Miserable billionaires and life-hack gurus tell us the only way to combat the universal truth that our time is limited is to make the most of each second by discarding wasted movement and idle dreams. Their obsession with efficiency and optimization spills into their politics and personal lives, which is probably why so many of the wealthiest people in the history of the world are so angry all of the time.
Efficiency is a lie for every human being. With our vestigial organs and internal redundancies — we have an appendix and two kidneys — we are inefficient creatures from birth.
Optimization is another fraud. Optimize our lives for what? You already know — for productivity, another unreal concept. A human life cannot be measured using cold calculations of the units produced over time.
A human life, any human life, is invaluable. A good life — one worth living — is not spent hoarding treasure like some cursed dragon or toiling away in a mine to help some dragon gain more loot.
