How Efficiency Makes Us Lose Our Time

We live in an age of convenience and efficiency. And these things... these are good. Very good, indeed.

We have these things because our forefathers worked hard for them. Plumbing in the home. Instantaneous communication. Music at one's fingertips. Ever-more-effective tools. Every man who has worked a hard day at a menial task welcomes the labor-saving -- it gives him energy to be home with the strength and vigor to love his wife and attend to his children.

I think we've lost sight of this, though. Because the draw to efficiency is so powerful, it threatens to eat up even the good things.
Are there things that we do that we WANT to spend time on? That, if this thing could take EVEN MORE time, we'd be happier? I think everyone can call to mind a few such things. We use our efficiency to try to gain more time for these things. We shop online so we can... spend more time cooking? Gardening? Being entertained? Maybe. We drive, instead of walking, so we can spend more time at our destination, and more time at home.

I don't think the problem with efficiency and convenience is that we lose all the good things. We DO use our conveniences to GAIN good things, and even to gain valuable time.

So what is it? What's the problem?

... ... ...

Whenever we try to make something more efficient -- whenever we try to make something take LESS time -- we imply, and believe, that it SHOULD take less time. Washing dishes. Writing a letter. Traveling to work. Starting a fire. Shopping. The movement is kind of relentless. You feel the impatience, right? If you're used to calling up a movie on the Internet, you bristle if it takes extra time, or even if you had to go to a store to buy a DVD. "Well, that's not worth it." It is HARD to sit and hand-write a letter, when you're used to typing. Not just because one has lost the muscle tone and skill. No, it's hard because we feel impatient. "Shouldn't this be done already?"

I am wondering at this. Have we, by inviting the drive to convenience into our hearts, destroyed the value of MOST of our daily life? Have we made nearly EVERYTHING we do into something we just want to GET DONE? Is this the baleful effect of the avalanche of efficiency?
By focusing so much on GAINING TIME, we have LOST the time. It's a cipher, it's nothing, it's best if it were entirely done away with.
And thus, we lose most of our lives.

... ... ...

Of course, the associated problem is there. Have we actually made it hard to enjoy these activities? When we treat them as valueless, we fail to adorn them with the goods that make them winsome and strengthening. And now we live in a world where the courtesies and beauties are mostly vanished.

Is the grocery store lovely? Do you expect to have a pleasant social conversation at any point in your trip? Will your cashier do anything more than look at you in a bored way, and only for a moment? He looks at a screen; you look at a screen. Will you even feel the touch a human hand as he passes you your change?

If you walk a mile to visit a friend, will there be lovely gardens along the way? Will ANYONE greet you? Will you see children playing outside? The people you pass -- how many will be listening to earphones, with entertainment much more interesting that you are? They're not that interested in talking to you. And how good are any of us at talking now, anyhow?

If you decide to take the extra time to make an entertainment at home, instead of calling one up on a computer -- will you be any good at it? Do your family members know how to cheer and enliven one another? Does anyone play a social instrument? Does anyone recite entertainingly? Is there a good patter over a board game?

I think, mostly, we have lost these courtesies. And so, really, it's hard NOT to rush past. Beauty invites lingering. Ugliness, untidiness, plain-ness -- we try to move on to what's next.

... ... ...

I will have to let this subject rest here, mostly. It has been a ramble; I hope a lively one for you. But like with the Slow Money -- which apparently made a bunch of you buy checks again for the first time in years! -- I see how much we need more Slow Things.

More walking and biking -- and more good NEARBY places to walk or bike! Corner stores? A true public house? Frequented parks and gardens? Like, within a mile! All of them!

More public entertainments. Dances, music, plays, sports. Neighbors invited, bonfires, a little practice and preparation. And REAL neighbors -- the people who live next-door, who we NEED to get to know.

More conversation in stores. More people playing music and singing at the parks that already exist.

(I know, I know... more neighborhood farmer's markets. I hear you. It is on my mind.)

And more people just leaving their smartphones BEHIND. So you have ask for directions. And MEET someone. So you're forced to find the value and adornment in the people around you.

Sure, it's less efficient. Sure, it's challenging. But maybe these sorts of attentions can fill our "convenience" time with real value -- and make us want to be there.

Want to be HERE. Where we are.