a case for an unoptimised life
seek the serendipity found in an un-optimised life
Everywhere we turn, we seem to be bombarded with optimisation merchants writing Twitter threads or long LinkedIn posts about how to increase your productivity. Whether it’s having 5am mornings, keeping multiple to-do lists, or interstitial journaling, there’s a relentless and often directionless pursuit of productivity to no end, which is cancerous in nature.
Busyness to me is the brother of Sloth. Whereas the latter is represented as indifference and without care, it has the benefit of being easily recognisable, it is the former that masquerades as industrious and diligence that often goes undetected.
This isn’t to say that I don’t value productivity or that we shouldn’t optimise our lives, but the problem arises when we’re squeezing every last drop of life from ourselves as if we were limes who are valuable only when drained of their essence. What we may find is that what is drained is not the productivity, but the serendipitous nature that makes us human.
Personalisation and targeted ads which exist to optimise come to mind, while great for businesses, it’s always rubbed me the wrong way. There was a certain enchantment in the randomness of TV ads when we were children, each ad was a surprise that could spark curiosity or just genuine enjoyment, especially those late-night kitchen gadget ads. But now personalisation reigns supreme, every ad that graces our screens has been meticulously tailored based on our preferences.
We're robbed of being exposed to products and perspectives that are beyond the scope of what we’re familiar with, confining us within the boundaries of our existing preferences, and only allowing us to break out of our echo chambers by swimming against the current.
Our existence transcends the number of pomodoros sessions, how many items we have checked off our to-do lists, and how often we journal. It is often the unplanned pauses, the diverging conversations on meandering walks, and the still and idle moments that we often find inspiration and draw most of our strength.