The Cost of Efficiency
Lately I’ve been noticing how trained I am to optimize. I hear business ideas or challenges and my brain goes into problem solving - efficiency creation mode. How can we get the most output with the least investment?
Coming from the tech world - we are trained to think this way. How can we optimize this? How can we automate this? How can this be scaled (ie - how can a human not do this?)...
And while I appreciate the benefits of efficiency and scalability - I believe they are overrated values for us humans to pursue. Maybe it’s this phase of late stage capitalism, or maybe it’s my own mid-career disillusionment that’s causing me to question this fundamental building block of our work lives.
Of course I understand why companies need to prioritize these values. For better or worse we live in a grow or die economy. But why should we structure our lives around these principles as well? How should we think about our relationship to efficiency as employees or employers? What do we actually want to spend our time doing (or figuring out how to not do?)
For example, a friend and I were discussing our gardens the other day - and he explained how he wanted to irrigate his garden to save all that time watering. I laughed. I want to spend MORE time in my garden - not less! What is he thinking he’ll save time for? What could be better than hanging out with your plants?
This dynamic appears in my business as well. I can’t tell you how many pitches I get from people trying to sell me the secret to creating an online course, a webinar or a book. The pitch is - “it’s so much more efficient to do the work once and sell it to hundreds of people instead of just 1 client.” Sure, but efficient for what? So what? So I make some extra money per hour of effort I put in. Great. Where does that lead? Am I going to get rich and then retire early? That sounds boring.
What if I LIKE my work in and of itself? What if it’s not about the efficiency or the scalability? If I were rich enough to retire - I’d want to work with people! What I’m doing now would be how I’d want to spend my time - regardless of how rich I am.
Now of course, I recognize my privilege here - I am lucky enough to make a decent living and have my basic needs taken care of. Many are not in the same position.
That said, so many of us who aren’t struggling with our basic needs are stuck in a mindset of optimization around our careers without clarity on where that leads. I understand that with money and time come freedom. But freedom to do what?
How can we work on things that are in and of themselves valuable to us? Where the work is meaningful regardless of the numbers that are spit out at the end?