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Hmm, I find it very hard to relate to this perspective. Perhaps this is a cultural difference: I don't value efficiency in my life nearly as much as you seem t
by rekado 5y ago
Hmm, I find it very hard to relate to this perspective.
Perhaps this is a cultural difference: I don't value efficiency in my life nearly as much as you seem to do. I don't go out of my way to waste time, but I'm perfectly happy to walk through the quiet roads while carrying groceries, thinking about what I've recently read, wondering about things I happen to see on my walk ---such as the Jugendstil reliefs on facades, a very inefficient type of decoration---, trying to identify trees and shrubs, etc.
I also really don't mind taking the time to write this comment, even though there's nothing efficient about communicating like this.
My work and art likewise are not efficient --- elegant perhaps, pretty even; but no artifact I leave behind is primarily efficient (unless it's code that was meant to be efficient only, the worst kind of code).
I used so many words to inefficiently say: I feel that efficiency is rather overrated. I won't ever give up being slow and being at ease with living slowly --- with plenty of opportunity for life to happen by accident.
PS: most of the public transportation stops are 10 mins away from where I live. Even the train. It's 10 mins away by bus ;)
- jseban 5y agoYeah, but my point is that the things everyone must do should be made as efficient as possible, so that everyone is free to choose how they want to waste their time. We shouldn't force anyone to spend their time and effort in a specific way by deliberately making something less efficient that's just stupid.
- detaro 5y agoGood, then please don't build cities that force me to use a car if I want to live efficiently.
- sokoloff 5y agoFor me, it’s not about carrying the groceries, but the mental and temporal overhead of thinking about what I needed, making a list, walking however many additional minutes, spending 15 minutes shopping/paying/packing, etc would strike me as a terrific waste if done daily. I used to do that when I interned in Germany. The market was near the bus stop and our dorm had limited fridge space, so I’d tend to buy and eat the same day (and rarely cook from scratch). That wouldn’t work so well to feed a family of four that way.
- crooked-v 5y agoWith a folding rolling cart or a bike with good panniers one could easily do all of that for the family of four with minimum hassle with one or two shopping trips a week, plus irregular trips to stock up on bulk stuff like toilet paper. I think part of the disconnect here, though, is that you're associating this process with extra mental overhead, but when there's no extra effort needed to just get stuff you don't need to think about it as much. Forget to get butter? Oh well, you can literally just get it the next day on your way back from the park or the movie theater—or if you really need it right now, you can get it at corner store just a few blocks away at a slightly higher price.
- sime2009 5y agoIn my house in the Netherlands, we feed a family of four each day and buy food an hour or two before we cook it precisely because we can't handle the mental overhead of planning food more than 24 hours in advance. ;-) We don't really make lists.