On Over-Optimization

A suspicion that's been growing for me lately: Our obsession with "optimization" is at the core of the mental health epidemic.

We're systematically eradicating these little pocks of idleness that used to be built into our day:

• going to the farmers market, strolling from stall to stall, chatting with the vendors -> popping in and out of a supermarket as fast as possible, ideally not talking to anyone
• cooking -> ordering food
• washing dishes -> dishwasher
• waiting in line, doing nothing -> waiting in line, scrolling a feed
• going for a walk -> going for a walk and listening to a podcast at 150% speed
• reading a book, taking your time to absorb the ideas -> speed-reading a 20min synopsis on Blinkist
• waiting for a friend to arrive and literally just waiting for them, being bored for 7min -> answering some quick emails and messages on our phone for 7min
• gardening, knitting, etc etc. - all of these activities are getting eradicated

We used to do lots of simple, slow things where our minds could be idle and rest. Not by design, but because things were "inefficient" and "manual". There just used to be no other option than doing nothing while waiting for a friend to arrive.

All of these activities were meditative given their slowness. What do you do when you wait for 7min for your friend to arrive? You get to check in with yourself, process the day, think about the disagreement you had yesterday with your partner...

Now we get out our phone and answer some messages or scroll social for 7min. We don't get to check in anymore, we don't get to process.

It's fine if it's just 7min but we're systematically eradicating all of these little pockets of idleness and eventually, it adds up.