Efficiency’s Trap, Time and Fragility, & Blind Alleys
Wednesday Wisdoms for February 19, 2025
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.
This month we’re exploring the theme of Time.
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
This email forwarded to you? Are you reading the free version? Click below to adjust your subscription.
Efficiency’s Trap
🤨 Quote
“We have deluded ourselves into caring more deeply about convenience and efficiency than about the things that last.”
Franklin Foer
Source: World Without Mind
Observation 🧐
What is the cost of efficiency?
We don’t often think about this question, rather, we only think about the benefits of efficiency in our lives. We think about the time we will save, the increase in our productivity, and the new opportunities we will be able to take since we now have more time.
But we often fall into efficiency’s trap here because whether we realize it or not, most of us won’t utilize this new time for ourselves, rather, we’ll try to just get more work done.
It is a trap because unless we are using it for ourselves, we’re still just running up against the clock trying to cram as much work in as possible.
“The harder you struggle to fit everything in, the more of your time you'll find yourself spending on the least meaningful things,” writes Oliver Burkeman.
When we are pushing for maximum efficiency, we tell ourselves we’re maximizing time, we’re getting the most out of life. But in the process, we lose out on actually experiencing life because we’re moving too quickly.
We very easily fool ourselves into performing more work through efficiency rather than creating a better work-life balance.
Epicurus’ philosophy centered around pleasure and one’s grasp of it. A happy life, he would say, began and ended with pleasure.
But there is a catch, we have to actually provide ourselves the time to slow down and actually enjoy the life we’re living.
“I do not know how I shall conceive of the good if I take away the pleasure of taste, if I take away sexual pleasure, if I take away the pleasure of hearing, and if I take away the sweet emotions that are caused by the sight of a beautiful form.”
If we do not slow down and allow ourselves the opportunity to truly take in life’s pleasures, then any efficiency gains in time we’ve made are ultimately pointless.
Sure we can make ourselves more productive and fill our time with ever-more things, but if we’re not actually given the opportunity to enjoy our time, what is the ultimate point?
🤔 Question
When you create efficiencies in your life, how do you fill the new-found time?
Time and Fragility
🤨 Quote
“Time is the best test of fragility—it encompasses high doses of disorder- and nature is the only system that has been stamped 'robust' by time.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Source: Civilized to Death
Observation 🧐
Life is filled with curveballs we don’t anticipate.
We are laid off from our job
A family member becomes ill
A relationship abruptly ends
Each of these impact us in different ways. Each requires our time and attention.
But how long we stay in these situations is up to us. Do we dwell on the situation or work to rectify it? How do we approach it if we cannot rectify it?
Everything we encounter in life is an opportunity to test what we’re made of—to test what tools we have, or the ones we need to learn.
This is why Marcus Aurelius reminded himself that impediments are not setbacks, they’re opportunities.
Maybe the loss of the job is an opportunity to find something that allows you to show your true potential.
Maybe the family illness brings you closer to loved ones.
Maybe the end of the relationship provides you the needed distance for self-reflection.
It is not that bad things happen to us, Epictetus would say, it is that we judge them as bad. By doing so, we naturally dwell on them longer, and in so doing, allow time to slip away.
It’s not that things won’t hurt. Life is filled with pain. Rather, it’s about using these times as opportunities to work on the power we have within us.
“Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it - turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself - so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”
🤔 Question
When confronted with a setback or adversity, how do you pivot to tackle the item at hand?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of Robert Iger. Click below to support and get access.