I just wasted 5 minutes and 48 seconds watching this video. Gladly, I was able to optimize my waste of time when I skipped the add.
37
Well, I just wasted six more minutes of my life watching that useless video. Now here’s a brilliant optimization tip: Pack your gym bag the night before! As if the time spent doing it the night before doesn’t count, but in the morning it’s wasted time?
19
Happiness isn't a result, but a duty. You just need to relax to fulfill it.
6
"After all, you’ve only got — on average — 78.53 years on this planet, total. "
Yikes, I'll be 78.53 in 19 months. Oh well, I'll try to do better next time.
24
Keep working for the man. Optimize shareholder value.
12
This is so great! Reminds me of a TurboTax commercial that advertised how saving time on taxes meant more time "doing you." It showed a woman on a couch. Just sitting, and smiling. It looked like she didn't quite know what "doing you" meant now that she had optimized her taxes.
8
Too much efficiency makes for dull little boys. It's the journey, man!
23
The speed-production imperative behind this kind of tripe is, taken by itself, silly. Taken in the context of today, complete with dependency on screen devices that contribute to suicidality-, anxiety depression, etc., and it's actually quite horrible and unhealthy. Speed makes for bad decisions. Anyone wonder why half of scientific articles today are retracted? -- Their authors optimized, I guess. This is the worst possible kind of palaver for teaching, learning, and existence: it's anxious speed is an anxious cover-up for boredom. Confronting boredom is an important fact of life.
Get off your screens and look around, folks!
7
I just optimized today by starting with the comments, seeing it was a satire and a few of the examples, and moving on to another article.
I saved so much time I could afford to write this comment. Videos in a newspaper are an annoying time-sink that rarely justify the time it takes to listen to them.
29
I made kind of all these advices for a while, I tried to optimize as much time as I could every single day, I even got a High French language level (C1) and also studied an online Master's degree concluding this one as the best average and student of the whole generation... Not a year had gone by and guess what happened to me???? I started to literally need to "learn" how to live again due to the ANXIETY and depression seizures the more-than-hard routine created to me :( :( :(
6
Thanks, Ms. Schlossberg. I needed a good laugh and a bit of perspective today. Now, to go pack my gym bag . . . Whoops. Don't belong to a gym.
17
Wait -- there's an app to optimize book reading? I actually kinda want that for "Moby Dick" which I want to have read, but don't want to read. I kinda want the good parts version, and is that so wrong? Better to have read the good parts than to have read none of it. Ars longa, vita brevis.
8
I just optimized my life by only watch the first minute of this ridiculous waste of computing space narrated by what sounds like a nine-year-old girl. Pack your gym bag the night before??? This is not why I read the New York Times.
14
I’ll read this tomorrow
9
I was going to sit through the whole 5 minutes plus of the video article but didn't want to waste my time, so I clicked off. 5 minutes saved!!
5
That's 5 minutes I'm never gonna get back!!!
4
Given Ms Schlossberg performs stand-up comedy I would think this article would find its best existence and following in the review area of the Arts & Leisure section and not under Opinion. If she presents the supposition that one does not know how to live life her article further confounds readers by its lack of clarity. The New Yorker or The Atlantic would have politely declined to publish such sophomoric drivel.
4
Roses. Stop. Smell.... Poor Tara.
3
You NYTimes 'people' are sadists.
Why are the few moments life living, 'wasted'? As much as the NYTimes would like it to be, people aren't machines. Our lives aren't meant to fill every waking moment with productivity. That's a communist/totalitarian view of human existence: cogs in a machine that grinds every ounce of energy out of every soul.
2
Omg
Give us all a break. This is absurd and a complete waste of time for those who read it.
7
Smell the coffee #WorthIt
2
I just ate a wwhole bag of microwave popcorn and a 100 g bag of m and m's while watching thi video. Time well spent!
5
Is this satire?
12
And then you die.
The End
8
Okay the humor was initially too subtle for me and I was afraid it was serious and had to stop watching. Glad to come back hours later and learn from commenters that it was all just a big hitting-too-close-to-home joke.
7
Honestly, I thought at first this might be super serious. I've been around other young professionals who are obsessed with their productive. They go to seminars to learn to stop procrastinating. The seminar starts with explaining that procrastination is about fear and emotions. So you think the seminar might go into the emotional work of dealing with your fears about work or how fear is an important part of the creative process. Nope. The end of the seminar was about programs that block social media or the Pomodoro technique. Seriously, productivity obsessed psychos are a real thing. One must wonder what is so great about work that one must be so hyper productive. And why these people don't just honestly take a good break.
Then I read the comments that suggested this was satire. Some of the video was black humor. I then thought the end would be "Step 5: One month later, you die from stressing out too much about your own productivity. A redoing the computation for your early demise, you lived less than 50 years. Good job." I feel the video never quite drove home how insane trying to be hyper productive is. The video seemed to constantly hint while almost seemed genuine.
I think to be truly happy and creative, you need proper breaks. You need fear. You need to work through emotions and you need time to come up with new ideas. A lot of work is happening in the spaces where you seem unproductive. Being too productive deprives you of that.
15
Videos? I can read material far faster than nearly any informational video I've had the misfortune of watching. Eliminating all "informational" videos is only a first step towards optimizing life. The second step is to dance.
11
What's the rush? Life is all about the spaces in between. Furthermore, reading a condensed version of most any worthy piece of literature is a terrible idea—especially while cooking! This may be the worst Opinion piece I have every encountered... and I watched the full video to the end (because it was really well designed and produced), and read every word. I am just out of my mind flummoxed by Miss Schlossberg's advice! Madness.
That said, the creativity, effort and lovely tone of the piece is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to seeing more from this author.
2
Why must I spend six minutes of my precious time on this planet watching a video? Watching videos and listening to pod casts are time-wasting activities, especially when compared to reading the same material. It is much easier to skim printed material and/or read it fast than to do the same with videos and pod casts.
8
Clearly the hapless individual is not optimizing the use of the other side of the double bed. Instead of the gym, do the seven-minute workout there. No need for time-consuming romancing to find a partner. There is an app for that.
Happiness not guaranteed.
3
We find ourselves expanding the effort/work to fill that established time frame. Overplan and overcommit to completing a task within a certain period of time and you suddenly find yourself unproductive.
Another issue with the strategy isn't that there is an agenda or a plan to completion, but rather the only accountability available is a loosely imposed time constraint. The effective, productive, approach is when we operate without inhibition. To achieve that we need self-imposed limitations.
Remove flexibility, remove comfort, and ultimately remove the 'safety net'.
Why? The more restrictions and limitations, the more we stimulate and push our creative self.
Here are a few not so obvious ways to lessen comfort and increase discomfort:
Remove the charging cable from the laptop.
Work in a place that closes at a specific time and then set your goals accordingly.
Have a goal to try and finish something 3 hours sooner than originally planned.
Pretend that the people you are surrounded by are holding you accountable.
If the work doesn't require the use of the internet, turn off your wifi.
Imagine work as a performance piece and not just 'doing work'.
3
The satiric tone truly came to the fore when the poor snoodle failed to enjoy his morning coffee.
When I die they will say - well, she never amounted to much, but she sure looked like she was enjoying life.
89
The only life hack I find useful is getting rid of all life hacks. My grandmother, rest her awesome soul, lived to 97. She worked hard, ate whatever she wanted, went to church, watched her favorite TV shows, traveled a little, read ridiculous magazines, all while taking care of a sick son and a sicker husband. When I asked her the secret to her "success" at living, she said this-"I don't think about things that make me sad and I rarely do anything that I don't want to do."
Thanks, grandma!!!! Me Too!!!!
186
I’m presently on a quest to optimize my “post-productive lifestyle” modeled after the Wally character in Dilbert. At least five times I day I ask out loud, “what would Wally do?”, and then do it.
To each his own, I guess.
24
Tara completely avoids the joys of both cooking and reading, two things that enrich our lives in immeasurable ways. Rushing through the activities you love is completely antithetical to living a full and happy life. Being mindful of the small joys we bring ourselves and others is a live affirming, joyful experience. Just watching this video caused enough stress to reduce my life by at least two years.
126
@Ellen Difazio Yep I shut it off to read the comments.
19
@Ellen Difazio Did you actually watch the video? To the end?
20
@Elizabeth If you had watched the whole thing you would have discovered it was satire, but luckily you optimized your time spent on it for maximum understanding.
46
Is this a satire? Tongue-in-cheek? I fear not. Whatever happened to smelling the roses? Do these relentless, clueless "optimizers" ever look up from their apps and see the clouds drift? Daydream? Mull?
47
@Paducah Nope
We have all heard the story of the person who, on their deathbed, never wished they had spent more time working. Perhaps the 21st century version of this is the person who, on their deathbed, never wished they had spent more time optimizing.
8
You lost me with "Short versions of the books."
5
Just turn off the TV; that's (at 3 hr/day) 21 hours of newly free time to do something relevant....rather than vegetate.
4
@Marc
I don’t think the demographic that reads this newspaper spends three hours a day watching television. May be a bit of streaming on the weekend.
1
This might not entirely apply but here goes. Many years ago I heard a comment that stuck with me ever since. It was said to his wife on the eve of their wedding: 'Honey, I want to spend all my time with you, but I will not guarantee your happiness.'
2
I was SO irritated and then SO confused and then SO amused. Brilliant.
15
This is so awful. I hope it’s satirical.
OK. I was about to ditch the video because I thought it was serious when I wondered why there were so many comments? Only then did I appreciate that it was satire. So I watched it all. Love it love it love it. Gotta give some things time to simmer.
10
I wish I could have those six minutes of my life back.
6
Wow. This terrible article signifies everything wrong with our society. Staying constantly busy is a recipe for burnout.
2
I wasted 4 minutes watching before realizing I was wasting my time. Thanks!
2
Very poor analysis and solution. Simply NOT TRUE. DJM
1
For a single person in a large modern city, maybe. A very large maybe. For a parent with two young kids, whose work location changes daily, who is starting a new business, who has a wife that works full time, who hates gyms and prefers a range of outdoor sports to keep fit, this is laughable. Watching the video I kept thinking “You must be joking - what an extremely dull & two dimensional, non-human existence you are advocating here!” It’s old school Taylorism applied to a species whose very essence is complexity. Philosophers, economists & historians everywhere are all raised eyebrows and eye rolls after watching this. Bit sad, really.
1
...or this vid is a little over a month too early! Either way I'm sharing it April 1st!!
1
Just quit my job. Optimizing.
7
Especially nice that the video was preceded by an advertisement from Disney warning me to take my children to the Magic Kingdom before it was too late!!!
3
"Optimize" is yet another in a long line of shiney buzzwords like "synergy" that get thrown around in self-important ways, inspire products and generally add up to one more worry. I'll pass.
3
I caught on that this was satire when it said you can 'optimise' your book reading time by reading summaries rather than the books themselves. I laughed out loud.
7
Im 60 and no one wants to hire me. Ive got bills up the wazoo and by my estimation Ill be flat broke in about 10 yrs. I have no idea what I will do. Optimize that.
5
Ha! I hacked the whole thing by reading the letters!
4
Missing the point of living!!
I'll optimize skipping future articles that recommend to treat life like a factory.
This video is a scream! I couldn't wait to share it with friends.
But, heh, why wait? Move immediately to New York City and get hit by a car going the wrong way down a one-way street!
2
Love this read. For all those who loved this, they should read 'Uncanny Valley' by Anna Weiner. All so true and yet so crazy!
It's not funny or smart enough to be satire. And it's too ridiculous to be for real. I'm not sure what it is, except a waste of my time.
5
cc: roots, not routes
Thanks for the humor.
OMG - get to the point! The video alone seems like it's wasting my time. Sorry...too long!
1
How depressing.
Is that what life amounts to?
Getting as much done as possible before we die?
1
Meaningless stats up 13 points today.
1
I'm not so sure I'm glad I "wasted" my time on this video. Was it supposed to be funny or was it supposed to be helpful? How do I get my 5 minutes and 40 seconds back?
More hours to sleep in my amazing comfy bed...yea!!!
1
Is this video a joke? It's so tongue and cheek it's not even funny.
What a major waste of time for all of us including the producer whose attempt at being smart and snarky fell completely flat.
It's satire, folks. Lighten up!
7
The secret is to optimize the heck out of the things you *have* to do, so you can chill and experience the things that you *enjoy/want* to do.
Thank you Amazon, Uber, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Airbnb, Expedia. With your help I can spend even more time on the perfect destinations of this great world.
SIX minutes to watch a video? Too long. I can as well write a comment without going through the bother.
"thoughts the slave of life, and life,
Time's fool."
is this a joke?
This was satire, right? Right? God, please, someone tell me this is satire! :)
1
Whoever said "American's just don't get satire" was clearly mistaken. I'm happy to report that it is less than half of those that comment on the NY Times website.
3
Who wants to live life like this?
Not me
So I have less than 5 years left, thanks for the info.
Once I read that, I stopped reading (just to save time ....)
Actually, I am happy with my daily routine.
I see what you're trying to do, but it seems to be intentionally missing the point. The idea of optimization is to put your time where you see it to be most valuable at that moment. Choosing to have better quality sleep so you can be more present when spending time with loved ones, for example.
1
Thanks for informing me I have 10 years left. I shop online except at the grocery at 6AM ...when there is no line. I prep my daily meal while my cafe con leche is brewing, and spend time on emails only for work which translates into more money for me. I telecommute, so I am never stuck in transit. I do no form of social media and only use a cell phone for emergencies. I would say that perhaps the greatest waste of time is persuing articles like this. But again, thanks so much for telling me that my demise is imminent.
2
The really disturbing thing is thst this is so true to today’s culture it’s hard to tell if this is satire or not. I certainly hope it is !
13
"...meal subscription services are awesome for this."
Ah, this video is a joke. (He said hopefully.) I'm gonna optimize my day now and stop watching, though I should have optimized when the Big Idea of pre-ordering my coffee was suggested.
4
What a lonely life this seems to show. What a lot of nonsense. . Forget it. I prefer to take walks, have a drink with my friends now and then, play some music, read without multitasking, meditate, make my own lunch, and live my life at a one-task-at-a-time pace. I'd like to live one life of quality, rather than several lives lonely and forgotten.
7
You forgot artificial intelligence. I recently learnt that we will soon have computers connected to our brain via AI, so the entire world wide web will be VOILA! right up there. Imagine then we will have all the time to relax (even shave), since we will know everything.
Boring and NOT FUNNY. I optimized by quitting after the first guy waking up and heading out, who was saving 9 minutes. Of course, now I’m squandering what I saved by not finishing the video, so chop chop, off to save the whole rest of my day, maybe my LIFE, by avoiding content like this. Thanks!
5
Ah, the exuberance of youth.
Between the ages of 15 & 35, you think you know everything.
Around 40, you suddenly realize most of what you have been told about a good (successful) life is a lie. But, if you are still healthy & your children are managing in school, you suddenly feel like you finally understand what life is all about: not what you were told & certainly not what you believed between 15 & 35.
Fifty rolls around. You start worrying about holding on to your health. Just when you are working at peak productivity, you realize your goals have changed. That lovely decade that just flew by has yielded top billing to nagging worries. Are you living in the right place? What about the loons & the crooks in government? Will you be safe in your old age?
You start working harder, right around the time when your already frazzled body really wants you to slow down.
Here comes 60: wow, still here. No heart attack yet! But what if it strikes tomorrow? Next week? Better wring some enjoyment out of life before it's too late.
No, I never want the 'short version' of a good book. I have long conversations with my adult offspring. I write long letters, in cursive. I study foreign languages I will most likely not actually need much, because I love to study.
Learning things is inefficient. It's dull & repetitive & time-consuming. But it is also exhilarating, and leads to better sleep.
Slow down, kids. Think deeply. Weigh each word. Invest yourselves in loving truly. Sleep well.
16
Bummed I couldn't increase the playback speed on this. Could have watched a 5:46 video in 3:51, thereby spending 1:55 less time procrastinating work.
5
Well, that was brutal. Entertaining, not a little thought provoking, but brutal. Thank you!
6
I didn't have time to watch this video. Somebody summarize it for me.
2
Optimizing,? Like a robot? Very funny, Oh the human comedy of sel-improvement and another reminder never to go to a gym again. Thanks.
" There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mahatma Gandhi
1
"Optimize" is another pop psychology meaningless term. Completely subjective and an instant cliché, no doubt your boss will use the it in your next job evaluation. Oh joy!
2
Ha ha, funny, if only there weren't millions of fools trying to do this.
4
Fitter
Happier
More productive...
4
Haste makes waste.
I mean great satire and all but you seriously should pack your gym back the night before.
10
Packing the gym bag/laying out your gym clothes/sleeping your running duds/packing your panniers is extremely effective!
I don't want to watch a video, I know how to read; is there a link to a transcript, or an actual article?
4
A lot of comments seemed to come from folks who didn't watch the video - or get it. It was funny. A bit mordant. SATIRE.
A friend who had gone to a popular museum show this weekend commented that not only was it crowded, but replete with large numbers of strollers and baby carriages and very,very, small children, whose parents, she assumed, were intent on optimizing their children's pre-preschool years . . . all the better to optimize their chances of admission to a prestigious kindergarten someday...
6
I'm assuming this was intended to be a tongue-in-cheek commentary on Type A personalities, our drive to be 'successful' (whatever THAT means) and that sometimes, life is best simply Lived.
It's better sometimes to Just Be, than to always Be Doing...
4
Hard to tell whether it's satire or serious with that high-pitched female voice. Reading the comments clarifies things!
3
I understand it's satire, but for people 20-30 years old, think back to periods (windows) where you were happy/optimised/whatever. In other words, the best part of your life so far. Think about what it was that kept you there and see if you can get back to it or if you have to find a new minimum. For me, it was about giving up things like alcohol that greatly improved my life - I can happily say it is optimised now as it was the first 30 years of my life but not from 30-40. So....
1
Why do we need to optimize everything?
I remember seeing a Snoopy cartoon: Where Snoopy is saying, " I have no ambition, no direction,an absolutely aimless life, but then why am I so happy? What am I doing right?"
I would choose lazy time and a happy lazy life which may be more fulfilling than an optimized life.
10
Fabulous! Thanks for that excellent reminder. I have started to sit and do nothing for at least 15 minutes while I drink my coffee on Sunday mornings. It is a great way to ponder all the stuff I think might not be going right with my life and realize that things are actually going great. Enjoy the journey and be mindful...it is a good way to live.
6
stupid.
7
"Don’t Just Live Your Life, Optimize It*
*Happiness not guaranteed"
I'd say happiness is not guaranteed. Idle time is very necessary.
3
Here’s a not so easy fix. How about trying to live with purpose beyond the capitalist ethos of “me and mine first - screw everybody else.
Let’s try putting “Humanity First”.
Of course this might not relieve much stress but at least we might have a stronger world community.
2
Well, from my perspective, dousing this article in kerosene and lighting it on fire would be an optimized, and extremely gratifying, response.
7
Good fun! There are high school kids whose college applications seem based on this video.
3
Are optimists really optimizers or sub-optimal?
2
Don't enjoy your life; just speed and multitask your way through it, so that, at the end, you won't remember any of it.
Keynes was right. We could easily get by on 15 hours of work per week, if we could only convince the fat cats that they don't need to own every scrap of wealth that exists in the world.
6
Just saved 5:45 minutes by skipping this video. Time enough to rub my dog’s belly.
21
I fast forwarded the whole video for the sake of productivity.
10
This reminds me of a wonderful song from the old musical "The Pajama Game" called "Think of the Time I Save" sung by the efficiency expert at the pajama factory.
The last verse goes:
I'll be sitting counting seconds til the day I die.
And when I do, I have a plan.
Before I'm dead, I'll dig my grave.
That's what I said. Before I'm dead I'll dig my grave.
'Cuz when St. Peter calls my name,
I know I'll get there just the same but think of the time I'll save.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ4KItco0nE
3
Nothing about relationships in the video?
Regarding the building blocks of 'human flourishing' (what we call 'happiness') nothing better has been said than you'll find in Aristotle's Nicomedian Ethics.
I am absolutely gobsmacked that so many folks missed that this wonderful little piece was satire....
24
You forgot the step where you then package up your optimizing system & sell it to people as a seminar, a bestselling book, and a speaking tour. Doesn’t everyone want to be as productive as you?
1
The happiest time of my life was three weeks in the Sahara desert. We got up when the sun came up, went to bed when the sun went down, in tents. Lived on dates, oranges, onions and chapatis that we cooked in a makeshift oven, by collecting sticks and camel dung. The desert inhabitants were very hospitable.
I was never so healthy either. No clean clothes and no baths.
My anxiety disappeared for that time.
4
This optimization plan completely conflicts with the wisdom of the ancients that has been handed down through the ages. I believe it was Confucius who said "The fourth step is the one that must be skipped."
1
I cannot believe how many people are not getting that this is satire. Next, people taking "A Modest Proposal" seriously.
16
With respect (and thanks) to A. A. Milne:
"Pooh!"
"Yes?" said Pooh.
"When I'm . . . when . . . Pooh!"
"Yes, Christopher Robin?"
"I'm not going to do Nothing anymore."
"Never again?"
"Well, not so much. They don't let you."
I felt so sad for the little first-year schoolboy when I read it (when as a college senior I should have been doing homework) that I copied it into a diary that was also a tool of procrastination, and was reading this page in this same diary a few hours ago (on a break to reward myself for having reorganized a drawer) and it made me sad again.
5
I am in disbelief at the number of people who failed to see the satire, or saw it and were angry nonetheless.
16
The video plays as satire if you are not a ‘millennial’. I see the lives my (still at school) nieces have and the number of activities they are engaged in (outside of school) is staggering. I came home from school, did homework, watched TV, went to bed. These kids are being moulded for a way of life that I cannot comprehend. Their parents are working flat-out to provide this ‘Utopia’. ‘Family time’ is scheduled to fit in between sports activities on a Sunday.
4
I'm sure there's an app or self-help "life hacking" guru out there for that. And someone who dreams of making a billion doing it.
Ah, nicely done! I guess I’m so sick of this mindset, it’s so rampant, that I couldn’t bear to watch it till the end, when it was revealed to be the satire I initially thought it HAD to be! Kudos!
3
@Paris Spleen
It wasn't revealed at the end, it was revealed in the asterisk in the TITLE: "*Happiness is not guaranteed"
I tried to watch this at 2x speed for the sake of optimization
26
Very tongue-in-cheek video. Still, instead of all this we should read Byung-Chul Han's "Psychopolitics" and "The Burnout Society."
Geez, this video could have been optimized to be 45 seconds shorter. Time I'll never get back!!!
Nice animation work.
2
I watched, and I thought to myself: “This has to be a joke,” but no, we are supposed to take this seriously. The problem with it is simple, though strangely difficult for our tech-addled brains to fully comprehend. We can’t really “optimize” because we are not machines, though many have a vested interest in persuading us that we are. We are flesh and blood, organic creatures, formed by evolution to live in a natural environment with rhythms much slower than those of our culture. To keep up with this treadmill that the-powers-that-be pretend is “just life,” we Americans consume 146 billion cups of coffee per year—and that’s just those who buy into this madness.
1
Amusing, and, of course, just a tad depressing, based as it is on the "real" world. I confess I was tipped off to the satire by the expression "the time it takes to choose vegetables."
Non-satirically, the single best "life optimization" exercise I've ever engaged in was walking the nearly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail at age 54. There is nothing quite like a long-distance backpacking expedition to crystallize what actually matters in life.
On the AT, you are doing just a handful of things every day: walking, eating, finding/treating water, walking, making/breaking camp, eating, sleeping and of course answering nature's call as necessary. You are carrying everything you need on your back and you really can't "hurry" through a thru-hike (some walk faster than others, but for the most part, you're talking 2-3+ miles per hour).
I was told I was insane to leave a "good job" to be so "irresponsible." But as thru-hikers like to say, Hike your own hike, i.e. live your own life. If "optimization" and speeding everything up until your brain cells are constantly spinning and toiling is what you want to do, go for it.
As for me and my house (i.e. dirtbag hikers), we shall walk the trail.
2
I'm stunned, totally stunned by how many readers did not immediately "get" that this was satire. It's obvious folks.
Now ask yourselves when you lost your sense of humor.
10
This 6 minute video was only 5:46. I gained 14 seconds already!
6
If you’ve ever been close to dying, and are amazed and thrilled to come out of it alive, for a time as you get out of hospital ( I nearly hemorrhaged to death), you look at life a different way. I remember observing things as if from a distance. I was looking at all the things that would still be here, even if I wasn’t. Nothing beats being. Nada.
3
Being is a great thing. It comes before doing, if doing needs to come at all that day.
1
After seeing my father die slowly of a progressive degenerative brain disease, I don't mind waiting in lines or wasting time. Optimizing everything is a trap. Enjoy the now even if it's "wasting" time on a commute. It's okay to daydream or to do nothing.
3
Just think of how much time DaVinci wasted while staring at a blade of grass! Or Einstein, staring at the stars. Or Proust, lying in his bed 24/7 and writing tons of notes. Or any philosopher wasting time pondering over anything. Ironically, from nothing is where all great art & achievement starts--not from optimizing humans into machines.
Here's to anyone doing nothing but watching the world go while sitting in a cafe ---while surrounded by a sea of laptop screens & other fellow humans who can only engage through screens.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
- Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
Great article & video; a fine observation of what civilization ruled by algorithms & analytics has turned into.
1
This was an utterly, overwhelmingly shortsighted view of life's longevity.
Yes, "life's" longevity--not ours. It confuses "living" with producing. Didn't it happen to the authors of this quintessentially American approach to life that there are people who think they're actually living while they slowly peel and chop vegetables for cooking, or dedicate quality time for reading (preferably purposeless but beautiful literature instead of productivity-boosting self-help books), or love the routine of getting into a coffee shop and maybe sit down there for five or ten minutes, or just appreciate as the essence of living the act of standing quiet and slowly contemplating how a bunch of leaves dance with the breeze?
This is the exact opposite of mindfulness. It's a recipe for even more stress in an already stressed and packed schedule in everyones life. Who wants to live 265 years by avoiding to stop and smell the roses? No thanks, will pass.
3
Enjoying time wasted is time not wasted, or something.
Why people fish all day saturday and find it relaxing and rewarding even when not catching anything.
4
Thanks Tala and team, this was a truly excellent video!
2
"A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness."
-- Albert Einstein
5
Something also to think about. Especially when you're older--Do What Really Matters.
Wow! Finally a reliable guide to what not to do to have a truly enjoyable life.
3
I think the ultimate optimization will come from AI. It will answer texts and emails, make appointments, buy groceries, fetch things. It might even set you up with a date.
And then you'll have all the time in the world because you'll probably be unemployed.
5
Bravo. The obsession with maximizing everything or being the best might work for a corporation, but not a living creature. If everyone made a goal of learning to say "good enough" in a dozen languages, the world would be a better place.
Extending this to our current politics, a candidate running on a hundred plans is both highly suspicious and likely off-putting. Have a couple or a few big ideas to campaign on and exude competence paired with humility. Saying "everything is intolerable but I can optimize it" borders on delusion, and voters will see through it fairly quickly.
3
I'd like to optimize my "wasted" time, no where to go and no chores. Just me, a good book and quiet. I will not feel guilty at all.
5
This depressed me terribly until I read a few comments and watched to the end, finally realizing it was satire.
Now I am going to go outside and look at clouds until dusk.
6
This video is really clever, as shown by the angry comments below from those who didn’t get that the video was satire.
Optimization is not automatically bad, but the goal of optimization should be more free time to spend away from work and devices, preferably with people doing something fun. Unfortunately, for many the goal of optimization is to figure out a way to cram more work into an already hectic life. The end of the video points out the futility of this latter approach.
6
I couldn’t tell if this was a joke or not. I guess that’s the point. I think wandering around enjoying nature is the ideal, best way to spend time.
1
Perfect satire -- except when it isn't. Now in my fifties I work nearly double the hours I did in my twenties and produce at least 4x the work. I've noticed myself trying to figure out how to optimize every little moment of my life according to some sort of time-motion study principle. (E.g., can I spend less time preparing and cleaning up after meals if I rearrange the pots in the cabinet by frequency of use rather than space optimization?) The employers of the world have long since figured out that salaried employees can be treated as bottomless pits of free labor. Encouraging telecommuting (for the good of the environment, of course) means they can claim our former commute time and personal time, all while saving money on toilet paper. We don't even need time to go grocery shopping, since you can now hire an overworked, underpaid gig economy worker to do that for you.
Let's go on strike. All of us.
43
We've been coerced into living to work. The wrong foundation if a society wants stability.
4
That was cute. But it failed to address the central problem we all face: what is our definition of wasted time? Is the daily grind of the life we have chosen a waste of our time and talents? Are we doing what we we put on Earth to do with the time we have?
Everybody, if they’re honest, comes to a point where they ask themselves if they’re wasting their lives, and it seldom has anything to do with what time of day to pack a gym bag or when and how to answer emails.
Yes, we all would like to optimize our rote activities, but this advice is only effective if you’re sure that you’re doing what you’re meant to do. Otherwise, going through these steps only makes a person less likely to discover what they’re meant to do.
Honestly I felt exhausted watching it. I can just see K-12 schools using these steps to teach students how to maximize their time, not bothering to ask (or care) if the activities they’re optimizing feel like a waste of time in the first place. Seems like a perfect way to churn out cookie-cutter kids who are trained to optimize their time on assigned activities instead of really finding what activities they enjoy. As a former teacher, this irks me. And as a former gifted kid (which basically only meant that I got made fun of and didn’t have a boyfriend until college) who had my time wasted in a school that lacked electives in the arts, it irks me even more.
So, my question to throw intothis big pot of stew is, what is your definition of wasted time?
5
Genius. Hey Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, and the rest of the manic self-improvement gurus, are you listening?
6
As I started to read, I wondered how this article would make me feel bad about myself. By the end I was chuckling, and feeling pretty good.
2
"Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand."
Nothing is one of my favorite things to do.
4
Funny. #jomo
Speaking of “Step 4” -accelerate - there aren’t many proverbs that I repeat out loud to myself from time to time because they have proven to be true all my life and I suspect for most people throughout the ages, but one of them is “haste makes waste.” There is a tipping point when “acceleration” does not result in “optimization” but only brings disasters large and small and terrible frustration.
1
As a person with cancer who now has a severely limited life expectancy....
I would implore people to do the exact opposite of what is recommended here.
Take a nap.
Go on a vacation.
Pause.
Be still.
64
Hah! Excellent. So relieved it quickly revealed as satire. I was thinking about how much time I spend apparently doing nothing is actually time spent just being alive.
5
This video/article is so American. Hustle till you drop. But for that all that frantic, never ending work, don't necessary expect healthcare, a living wage, or a high quality life. And don't forget to pledge to allegiance to the flag. Most importantly, be sure to CONSUME, and spend that $$$.
4
$$$ that for most people are in increasingly short supply.
Brilliant. Well done. Should be required viewing for everyone in the Bay Area, in particular. Ugh.
6
I am tired simply watching this video; maybe I will take a nap. What is missing here is the feeling of purpose, day dreaming, meditation, contacting the unseen realm, watching a bird flying across the sky.... enjoying the company of friends, connecting with others IN PERSON; that is living. Good luck with that optimizing!
2
John Lennon says "Life happens when you're busy making other plans." I am highly motivated and achievement successful. I however relish all the "dormant" spaces between the puzzle pieces of my worldly activities and achievements. Down time is the place to "rest & digest" with joyful gratitude and marvel at all of our "optimized" timely achievements, lest we forget the whole of life only exist in this moment.
1
Hysterical! Made my day! Now, its back to work...wait, it's snowing in the mountains? Where's my board?
6
I just lost 5.46 minutes of my life....
7
This IS satire..... isn't it?
3
And what to do once you’ve reached your personal sell by date of 78.5 years? Run for president again! Oligarchy? America’s rapidly turning into a gerontocracy.
1
You’re kidding, right?
1
This reminds me of Frank Gilbreth, the 1920s time and motion study pioneer (AKA the father in the book "Cheaper by the Dozen"):
“Someone once asked Dad: 'But what do you want to save time for? What are you going to do with it?' 'For work, if you love that best,' said Dad. 'For education, for beauty, for art, for pleasure...For mumblety-peg, if that's where your heart lies.'"
Thanks for the great satire!
1
There's probably a clever message in this, but I don't want to spend the time on it.
3
I loved this.
But she forgot the pie chart on FUN.
(Following Tala on Twitter now. I think I’m gonna like her videos....!)
Susan
Expat in Ireland
Well, I have found happiness in Socialism.
According to our next president, everything will be free.
What's not to like?
Think of all the time I can sit around, doing nothing, maybe read Das Kapital ( comic book version), and get stoned.
Even Trump can't beat such a wonderful guy.
Happiness is the American way.
4
I watched this entire video to see if it would contain any useful advice. It didn't. Waste of six minutes.
2
Thank you for this hilarious video. I will enjoy my inefficiencies today more than ever.
6
"But Penn knew nothing about optimizing."
Lucky Mr. Penn. Optimizing is not living.
4
I could have read the sme thing in half the time or less. I wasted minutes looking at cutesy animations attempting to stress me out about - wasteing time.
2
Instant classic.
;-)
2
This is brilliant and hilarious, thank you!
2
I would say that Congress is the prime example for why optimizing is not a good idea. Where have you ever found 635 people who could legislate more, on the front end, without taxing for all of it on the back end, so now they gave us $23.355 trillion of debt which will cost $500 billion in interest this year, and more each year going forward? In 10 years, that will be over $5 trillion dollars. They have also optimized spending over $30 trillion of entitlement spending over the next 30 years for programs like Medicare, Medicaid(75 million on that one, free for them, no premiums), Veterans, Social Security, etc. with no way of paying for all of it. No, self control, living within one's means, and paying all of the bills that as an adult you have made promises for, is the way life should be lived. Optimizing, not so much. Having grown up from the age of 2 living in north central Montana, camping and fishing on the eastern front near Heart Butte, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and in the Flathead Valley, I can tell you, that knowing that nature was in charge, and learning how live for a few days in that environment was the best life, ever. And yes, the first lesson I taught my two children, at the age of 5 & 6, when they were sitting on the bank of the little pot hole(small lake) catching trout, and they saw the Indian children ride by bareback, is that America took all the land away from the Indians, and they never forgot it.
2
@MaryKayKlassen
Social Security isn't an entitlement program. I did, and you will, pay into this gov't saving program your whole life.
so good, I am intentionally going to waste some time today ;)
2
Can’t imagine a more boring life! Yes, optimize your life like the sad sack in this video, but make sure that you have zero desire to love or be loved by anyone.
Thank you for this comedic, still useful, take on “optimally” living your life. Where was the option to view this at 1.5 times speed ;)
2
When it first started I was gonna say "WHAT!! are you kidding...." until I realized she WAS!! so condemnation turned to laughter!!!
3
Surely, you jest.....this is too,too....
I appreciate Step 3, but all the rest is just laughable....
Take a break sister, and read an entire book.
Perhaps even ...#take a vacation,#are you kidding?....
Time is for wasting.
2
quit the video half way through...it was already stressing me out.
1
Is the creator of the video the daughter of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg?
As someone who is constantly trying to optimize my life, I found this to be hilarious. That being said, this mindset allows me to do more of what I do enjoy, less of what I don't enjoy, and reach more of my goals..
Tala, this is so terrific. So funny, spot on, and poignant. Love it. Thanks so much for creating this.
4
The video is very funny and true, or is it?
Aren't we all trying to get the most bang out of our years on Earth? Forget "optimization" and just live your life and be happy.
Happiness, or contentment, comes from being honest with yourself and others and choosing to be happy. It's well worth the effort.
No, there are no guarantees in life, but you can find what fills you with bliss and wrap it around you and those you love.
ha! love it. this is *not* accessible for the majority of the population in 2020 (but one can dream) -- the best 'optimization' I've found is to have as much autonomy at work as possible, coupled with something you find purpose in doing, that leads to being moderately well compensated. the rest seems to take care of itself.
and yes, taking care of your (in my case, furry) loved ones, and having plenty of time to do nothing in my view is part of the 'optimization.' creative thinking happens non-linearly although I think there are certain conditions that make for particularly fertile ground.
Once when my daughter was a little over two years; I stayed home and mom went to work. After a time my daughter and I played in the backyard. We played and rode a skateboard, we giggled and tended our small garden. We basically did nothing of significance. We did laugh a lot as I recall. I'll never forget that afternoon. I've never had so much fun in my life.
5
As an aging "boomer" who's become wizened, if not wiser, I have often now noted (primarily to my age peers) a simple point. Albeit, probably well after I have departed the scene the so-called Millennial generation will reach middle age. At which time I fully expect that many will themselves become "woke" and realize that the prime of their lives was passing by as they were staring at a cell phone screen.
Each generation, when young, becomes fascinated with the "now" -- but it is both amazing and alarming how many folk wander around glued to their phones. Whether walking (or more scarily to others, when driving) they cannot help but read and respond to texts. Texts that then direct them to videos of things like playful cats and Twitter streams of ill-informed "opinions" based on fake news plants from politicians and trolls.
There's no stopping this trend to distracted living. It is now a fact of life that is irreversible. Younger generations today know of no other world than the one that demands the individual's need to be constantly "socially networked". The pleasures (as well as the fears) of isolated self-reflection are lost to the requirement of constant "connection".
4
This reminded me of the movie "My Dinner with Andre." I try to be like Wally who is happy with simple things in life, not like Andre who is frantically roaming the globe in search of exotic experiences.
3
One of the best things I've seen in a while. I started watching it specifically so I could get mad at it for making optimization the focus of our lives, ready to fire off a letter about how the celebration of optimization at the expense of meaning was killing us, etc, etc. I was 2+ minutes in before I got it. It was the book-reading app that tipped me off. This is going to be a classic.
14
I'm stunned to realize that there are so many readers who lack any sense of humor whatsoever. For the slow-witted, wasn't "Skip Step 3" a dead giveaway?
12
This was a waste of time...didn't get past step 1. Now, I'm off to do the Times' crossword puzzle.
2
@Philly Mom It's satire
9
I'm a parent to young children, and have been thinking about "optimization" a lot with respect to child rearing. There's so much literature out there encouraging you to do more more more for your kids....make your own baby food! Spend money on subscription toy boxes so that you are assured the "best" toys are delivered to your doorstep at the exact right time in their development! Buy this book on alternatives to screen time!
I pass on a lot of it. Better to have pizza and a movie night and enjoy your time as a family, even if it's not "optimal". And the Tupperware and wooden spoons in my kitchen drawer make for great toys for my toddler, no subscription needed.
287
@Itsy
Very true. Don’t fall for all that propaganda marketing agencies say you must have. I always go back to Joe DiMaggio. Did he need the $350 bat or the $200 name-brand shoe to be a better player? No, he just had talent and a good work ethic.
5
@Itsy Yeah! There’s a whole world outside to engage with, which will be ever so much more fascinating that the newest « it » toy. The fist of commerce is everywhere, and it’s stifling the imagination of children and adults alike.
9
@Itsy there's a lot to be said for making your own baby food. That's one of the best things you can do for kids.
2
This is such a great example of what's causing the epidemic of stress and anxiety in America (well, one of the things). It promotes quick fixes to existential issues, which it foolishly equates to longevity. It tells people that it's not enough to just be alive and enjoy the world: you're meant to achieve the high score. The video doesn't pick a score category for you, but the clear implication is that life is valuable when it has a measurable goal attached. There's a pressure and an urgency to fully utilize every single second for productive ends, and it's inhumane. Somehow, humans have spent the past 6,000 years making labor-saving inventions and we're still working just as hard as ever. Maybe the answer isn't to game-ify your life. Maybe it's to relax more. Maybe it's to disengage from pastimes you can't fully invest in. Maybe it's not so much about making every second *count*, but about making the time we have worthwhile.
When laptops were invented, the idea was that it would be a great way to work flexibly throughout a building or to take your work with you on business trips. In reality, it meant that now we were expected to work from home even when we're not on the clock. When smartphones were coming out, the big selling point was that you could check work emails while not in the office. Now you're expected to check them all the time. If we keep pushing driverless cars, we're going to be working on the way into work.
It's not sustainable. We need a break.
543
@Andrew Roberts
Did you not understand that the video is a satire?
52
@mls
You have to watch a good bit of the video to understand that it's satire. I didn't at first, and was taken in by the written description.
29
I completely agree with you Andrew. Life is about the journey not the destination. We need to get outdoors in nature and create art and music and get off our phones and engage each other. It’s about appreciating not optimizing each moment.
13
This was absolutely hilarious! I was taken in at first, but realized at some point it was satire...brilliant!
379
Yes, the gym in hell scene was it for me!
4
@Laura Thanks. I declared this 'stupid' after watching one minute. After reading your comment, I watched the whole thing. Make my day!
2
@Laura
If it was a satire it fell flat. I didn't think it was funny--just stupid.
1
Clever! I'm glad I listened to the end to realize the joke. In my younger days, I was always trying to squeeze more in, at the loss of being present in the moment. Now, I do worry about how much time I have left and how precious that time is, so I optimize laughing, watching my grandchildren and trying to stay healthy. The point is well taken..what are optimizing and why?
1
Okay Tala, you need to reply back so everyone knows. Was this satire?
@Mary, not Tala, but yes it's satire. Sad that we even have to ask the question.
2
Because the NY Times specializes in the nauseating 'in-a-nutshell precis of the courant experience for the time-challenged millenial' format (36 Hours in Ajo, Arizona!), I didn't spot this as irony when I read the title. Or is it? Irony, I mean.
This great animation, suggests we see life, as an animation.
That is we see in our minds, jumping around between tasks.
Jumping around, might suggest opportunities for success.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, with such simplicity, we might see ways for change.
"The unexamined life is not worth living" (Socrates)
Much thanks. I just replay this, again, and again, and share it
It might be especially useful with students, in schools...
www.SavingSchools.org
Is this a joke? How about thinking about the point of your time on earth? What is the work this person is doing: How is he contributing? And is this by the same woman who just wrote a book about climate change? Why is this man taking a Lyft and ordering meals? Was this post sponsored by all the tech companies? What will this man be proud of on his deathbed - all those minutes he saved by creating traffic and getting no sleep? Where has he become an engaged citizen?
We need to slow down and have purpose. We need to "waste" time just daydreaming, imagining, noticing, participating, contributing.
@Michie Did you watch the whole thing? Yes, it's a joke.
2
@Michie
Thanks Michie.
A wise man once said that what one does is far more important than how (or how "optimally") one does things."
@Michie
Um ... it was satire.
All those people standing around the casket? Where did they get the time? They should have been optimizing!
8
Misses the obvious FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Optimize your life for free choice not for optimum productivity.
Quit wasting your time and money on things that are not directed to giving you the option to say to your obnoxious boss "bye".
Whether you choose to pull the cord or not is then a welcome option to face every morning that you go to work.
So - quit using meal services - live where only modest amounts of your income are needed for shelter - don't go to a gym - walk and do basic fitness routines... well... you get it
1
I hate to be snide here, but if I were the daughter of a Kennedy, I'd probably see life and the many ways to spend it a bit very differently than do most of us out here.
If this is supposed to be satire, a much better example was a song from 1954's The Pajama Game: Think of the Time I'll Save:
"I'll be sitting counting seconds till the day I die.
And when I do, I have a plan.
Before I'm dead, I'll dig my grave.
That's what I said. Before I'm dead I'll dig my grave.
'Cuz when St. Peter calls my name,
I know I'll get there just the same but think of the time I'll save."
If you're serious, you'll have to excuse me. I have some coffee to sip and roses to smell.
Funny yes, but too long.
1
I'm guessing this was suppose to be funny.
1
Thanks for this humor! I’m happy to say that I’ve been unproductive so far in 2020. I have taken a lot of nice walks and begun a Qi Gong practice, though.
#happilylosingmyhustle
1
this is horrifying.
1
This is a joke, right. Because it feels like 6 minutes I'll never get back.
1
Is not coptimization" another form of greed?
"I can't tell if this is serious or sarcastic," notes one comment.
A sure sign of a poorly conceived message. Which is pretty much par for the proverbial course when it comes to productivity articles these days.
"Optimizing Yourself" is a major subset of the Productivity Porn industry and, apparently, it is a category that we can't seem to get enough of. PP is also an outreach program of
what used to be a single industry, advertising: encourage, admonish, cajole, disparage your way to a better life by demanding more. Accept nothing less than more. Having more is *being* more, the subtext informs us.There will never be enough, and there is always more.
"Our current sense of self is no more sustainable than our current use of energy or technology." (Jensen)
1
*high five* to Tala! I'm off to take a bubble bath and then curling on the sofa. Optimizing my evening.
1
Spending more of your precious time inhaling Seneca and his ilk along with Jung and a few others from yesterday will add more productive to anyone's life for all of the tomorrows to come.
1
I don’t know what she is smoking, but I want some!
1
Silly.
All those "wasted" hours are part of life.
Somebody got paid to make this video? That seems sub-optimal somehow.
I lost five minutes of my life watching that ridiculous video. What was the point of that besides showcasing some cute graphics? Come on NYT -- be relevant.
Waste of space in the NYT. Love how it's just a single person with no real other responsibilities. Please don't waste readers' time with things like this.
haha oh yeah it is a joke
Watching this video was a waste of time.
Funny/not funny
Too busy optimizing to comment...
You're kidding, right?
I am exhausted.
Ah, the freedom of being technocratically lobotomized, dehumanized, packaged and sold off to a sparkly young manager of infinite optimization. Mayor Pete and David Brooks as co-ceo's of Optimization Inc?
P.S. It's a joke, people!
What utter nonsense!
1
Love this joke!
I’m enjoying the slow lane and tasting my dessert.
2
I missed the part about stopping to smell the roses.
3
I'm laughing at the people who obviously didn't watch the entire video. Or if they did, were so busy being outraged the point sailed past them and they missed it.
It speaks volumes that they are already optimizing their time by reading only a headline or scanning the flavor text and making assumptions. Slow down. Waste time. Don't feed the machine that views you as a "resource" not a human.
Busy, busy, busy.
12
@RecursiveAngel
Actually, if they had read the headline they *would have* immediately recognized it as satire: "*Happiness not guaranteed"
It would be interesting to do a reading/attention comprehension study--how many of these folks who are missing the point are watching/reading on a phone?
This lack of rudimentary comprehension makes shake my head. Are they making decisions about who to vote for with the same poor comprehension?
Cleverly deadpan. I'm ashamed it took me until "read a book while you cook dinner" to catch on, but that was a terrific laugh-out-loud moment.
2
Nope. I am retired and massively happy just sitting at my kitchen table staring at my neighbors high energy princesses combine a tea party with a cop show. I had to optimize time and put up with job reviews at work for far too long. It is my time to waste. I am free and joyful.
4
A life without any "crevices" of aimless free time (however tiny) is a life without oxygen.
I'll take 'staring into space' over 'suffocation by scheduling' for $1000, Alex.
4
After I realized that this is a clever satire that makes fun of the many ridiculous "time saving" products available to us these days (and of our collective insanity of trying to "keep up with the Joneses"), I enjoyed this video immensely.
If I've absolutely missed the point and the writer is dead serious about these things, I'll beg to differ - and go back to standing in line making small talk with neighbors while waiting to order my coffee...
5
I think most people criticizing this video didn't watch it to the end to realize it is CLEARLY SATIRE. I guess they were too busy optimizing by only reading the headline...
8
We probably are wasting six to eight minutes of life by reading the article and watching the video. And another few minutes by reading the comments and responding. But what is life without amusement?
2
My basic view on life is to live it in a basic healthy way, try to find some happiness and advance society.
There are a zillion combinations of above.
The only rule is to stay away from the extremes, ie somebody who believes you must be miserable all your life or somebody who wants to party 24/7 and die at age 27 like so many rock stars.
Both extremes burden people.
1
I am astounded by the number of commenters, the majority as of this moment, who failed to understand that the video is a satire.
5
"There are services now that actually just give you the short version of the book Same info way less time"
LOL. This is hilarious. The sad thing is that for many people, this is a reality to which they aspire.
3
This is a Western thought and neuroses. If you study Zen, you'll find a great appreciation in "chopping wood, carrying water" as joyful activities that are part of life, activities that mean you are living. Sad is the day when you can't take care of yourself.
2
Daydreaming is the essence of where creativity starts. "Optimizing" sounds like putting yourself in a self-regulating police state.
#worthit
I so needed this today! Thank you for the laugh.
2
If the transcript were available, I could have read this in :46 seconds instead of the 5:46 it took to watch it. What a waste of time.
Put everything you are doing on the table. Push half of it off. The magic is in knowing which half.
1
Very good!!!
And loved the animation/ illustrations.
Well done and well said!
Let's all enjoy the day and our lives.
Happy Monday everyone! 😊
7
Personally, suggesting that I'm not already doing half this stuff is pretty tone deaf. The real trick is to jettison about half the stuff one is trying to accomplish. I've worked in foreign countries and people often think American's are nuts for what they try and "get done" in a day/week.
In American culture you see parents missing the childhood's of their kids to overwork which leaves them no time and energy for the kids. Their reasoning is that money will provide for the kid later in life. But kids are now.
You are far better off being a little poorer and spending more time with the kids when they are kids.
.
19
spending more time with the kids doing what? running around trying to please them? distract them? over stimulate them? lots of talk about spending more time with the kids, but to do what? and how much time do they really want and/or need?
1
@Boregard /kids usually tell you what they want, unless they are mad about a parent being unavailable in which case they can play hard to get for a while.
I'm not a helicopter parent. If the kid wants to play with friends or not hang out with me, I'm mostly good. Mandatory family functions, trips and stuff also help.
And each kid is different. Some are more independent, some more needy. Sometimes its a stage, sometimes its a trait they have for life.
But most kids just want a parent to be around and available when they need them. Give them that, be hyper consistent and as fair and reasonable as possible, and model the behavior you want them to engage in. The rest usually takes care of itself....
.
2
Boregard, you’re kidding, right? Read to them, pop popcorn and hang out watching a movie on the sofa. Cards. Games. Shoot hoops. Go for a walk together. Cook together. Or maybe ask them about their day and sit long enough to listen to them.
OK, what's wrong with me: I enjoy commenting on NY Times stories at work -- the horror! After work my vice is a vanilla latte at my favorite coffee shop, while also going online to post on snarky college sports message boards.
In my free time I enjoy working out or playing tennis, or reading novels or good historical non-fiction. On the weekend, I greatly enjoy sleeping in -- oh what a sinner, I am!
I also don't prepare my food early like this one, but like cooking it myself. I hang out with my friends on the weekends, usually sitting around watching movies or sports. Seriously, I feel good about all this and that's my optimization. The author needs to lighten up.
10
@TRS It's a joke.
1
I think you missed the joke?
2
@TRS I think you completely missed the irony. I suspect you didn't watch it until the end. Good job, Reply Guy.
1
Maybe all y'all can go optimize yourselves on the other side of the planet for a bit, whilst I enjoy the rainy drizzle out and warm cat in. Thanks you very much.
23
@Chip YES!!!!! I could not agree more. Optimization is for computers, not people.
1
Hahahahahaha!!! Hilarious. I will now optimize by reading the rest of the NY Times on my break, walking around and stopping to see friends, and then grading my students' papers. Tonight my optimization includes cooking slowly (braising) and baking. Then, watching Vienna Blood with my lovely partner. Texting my dear parents, my awesome kids, congratulating my son in law on his district voting to strike, and thanking my other son in law for putting a piece of furniture together for us. Oh, I nearly forgot--I try to always optimize by watching the sun set. And by drinking a glass of wine while doing so.
56
@Eva Lockhart - yours is, hands down, the best comment - and there are a wealth to choose from on this piece....much appreciated!
2
Add five plus minutes to your life by not wasting it on this video. The seven minutes spent waiting for a latte is life, Little Sister. It all holds magic if you're conscious enough, or not too exhausted from your life optimization plan to see it.
11
Low productivity is hugely frowned upon these days.
Centuries ago, many of the inventors and geniuses stared at the sky and did just that.
Sometimes, worthy ideas take time and analysis before they're digested and manifested into reality. The modern life doesn't seem to be compatible with that.
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@Farnaz great post. My favorite poet, John Keats, enjoyed looking at the sky and nature and just wandering the countryside. He returned to his desk to write some of the best poetry in the history of mankind. He died young, but to me that's a life well-lived.
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@Farnaz Society demands productivity.
Resting is punk.
I am glad to see readers see the folly in the philosophy of the thinking in this video. Listen to the podcast "Ideas", episode, "The Death of Leisure" or the book by Bertrand Russell "In Praise of Idleness," Time well spent - non- productive.
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@Harvey Zahn just read Desert Solitaire...
Satire at its finest...or one could be 'productive' and turn the whole thing into a corporate motivation program, fat speaking fees, definitely need to publish a book, no one will read it, but that's not the point, published authors can demand higher fees, and then (pure inspiration)... create a Productivity Podcast.....welcome to The Waste Land.
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This is a great dystopian satire of tech industry culture, almost as good as Huxley. Soon the last frontier--the inefficient gap between being human and being a computer--will be overcome!
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Not being a blender or car, not interested in optimizing my life.
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Are you a toaster?
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@Fairwitness
.....linked to your email and a subscription to gluten free bread grown in Wakanda?
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A great way to spend 5 minutes of my morning! A perfect comment on the relentlessness if this weird moment we live in, full of push and judgment. We would all benefit from just
staring out the window for awhile.
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@Nina Leibowitz
This great animation, suggests we see life, as an animation.
That is we see in our minds, jumping around between tasks.
Jumping around, might suggest opportunities for success.
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Also, with such simplicity, we might see ways for change.
"The unexamined life is not worth living" (Socrates)
Thanks. I can replay this, again, and again, and share it
It might be especially useful with students, in schools...
www.SavingSchools.org
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Indeed, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycke Maintenence the author reports that sitting back and staring at theproblem is his favorite repair technique.And it also helps remind you who you are (say zen masters)
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@Nina Leibowitz I used to be a high school English teacher and my Special Ed co-teacher would get mad at me for not making a particular student stop staring out the window. I couldn’t bring myself to get mad at him. School was torture for me too, and I knew that he was learning more staring out the window than through anything in the textbook. So I think you have made a superb point.
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Beautifully animated and cleverly written. Well done! Relentless optimization is too often the unquestioned norm. Seems we need time to assimilate our experiences into our existence. Seems a better goal than merely maximizing raw experience. What are we living for? A better question than one beginning with "how much" and "compared to whom."
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@Jared and the sad thing is that some dumb teacher somewhere, probably in Alabama, is thinking wow, I will teach my students these optimization techniques and they will become amazing little robots and I will be the best teacher in the whole school!
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This is satire...right? Please be satire. Otherwise, I want to vomit into my protein-shake-breakfast-substitute.
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A view comments wonder whether this video sarcastic: trust me, it's unquestionably sarcastic. Wasting time can be a great joy and boon to your psyche. The trick is to waste time constructively. (I know, an oxymoron.) I'd rephrase it to say use your wasted time to focus on you, your life, or life in general. Waste time staring into space, at a sunset, whatever you believe is a beautiful image or, better yet, an afternoon nap. All good. Waste it veging out in front of TV, particularly your fifteenth viewing of the Soup Nazi or the Gilligan's Island episode where Gilligan is worshiped as a god by Island natives. Waste it moaning how bored you are. Probably bad. Accepting that that you'll eventually watch the Soup Nazi, again. Well, no one's perfect.
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So, a robotic "über optimized" approach to life is the way to go? Must. Be. Productive. Always. Every moment planned out. 21 hours a week fettered away, oh my.
According to who? How? Who comes up with this drivel?
Our lives are already compressed and chaotic. Give me a break.
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good point, but why contribute to the problem?
Should have been only 1 minute long.
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Loved it! Time for a book and a nap.
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Thank you for your 2020 thoughts on optimizing life,Tala Schlossberg. Remembering when your Mother was our
Ambassador to Japan recently. The answer for the very old people of America is just to unplug and enjoy the reality of the day, which they are not optimizing by using social media and such venues as your video to comment on the crazy pass our country has come to. When 20 and 30-somethings hit their late 70s, 80s, and "Elderhood" in America, is when the "optimized" life won't mean diddly. The answer, clear for all to see, is to reduce and savor all the daily necessities of living.
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This was very sad! Not sure that was the intention... totally meaningless but optimized life
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I began optimizing immediately, by skipping most of this myopic video, which seems only relevant to a city dweller swept up in the dogma of frenetic productivity that has brought us global warming and species extinctions. Want to optimize your time here on earth? Take a walk in the woods with a friend.
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Nothing in there about doing things you actually enjoy or creating things or experiences other people actually enjoy. Apparently enjoying life isn't efficient!
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This is ridiculous. The subject seems to have no other obligations but to himself. The video makes it seem like life occurs in a vacuum. What about the things over which we have zero control? Delayed trains or traffic. Dr. office waits. Sick kids or parents. Timeline & optimization is out the window!
Subscription services? I wouldn’t want someone else picking out the food I’m going to eat. Plus, cardboard shipping waste.
Gym memberships? Costly. And gyms use a ton of electricity: TVs, fluorescent lights, machines. Home workouts will do. Daily coffee from a shop? Again, costly & wasteful. Make it at home using a timer set the night before. Worst of all - reading a shortened version of a book? What’s the point? A great pleasure in life is reading to escape the daily grind. If you must “fit reading in,” listen to an audiobook while walking in the neighborhood.
Optimization of time is not the end all, be all. In fact, it reinforces the dog-eat-dog mindset & fitting into some productivity mold set up by a capitalist society.
Who cares about quantity of time gained if we didn’t enjoy its quality along the way? Cooking, daydreaming, doing nothing at all. Do we really want creepy in-home devices & apps controlling our lives & our time? The freedom to waste time isn’t all bad, or all wasted.
“The Power of Habit” is a terrific book that is way more helpful than this video. Read it to the end & savor it at your own pace. Unless you’re too “busy” pre-planning your life.
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@Ruby
Really, Ruby? Did you not understand that the video is a satire?
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This is a joke, right?
I want to go in the opposite direction- I want to do one thing at a time and be present for that one thing.
Reading a book while I am cooking?
Checking the news on my phone while I am walking down the street?! Instead of looking around me, noticing the world and saying hi to people?
Not only does the thought of doing those things make me frantic, those activities sound positively dangerous.
One more stake in the heart of being present for your own life.
Drinking a shake while I am on the exercise bike? Yuck.
I appreciate the message of streamlining and not wasting time, but using my smart phone to double and triple up on activities is not the way I am going about it.
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@Marjorie Right - and not just reading a book while cooking, but reading an abbreviated version of it! So you can "get the information" in less time! How does one "get the information" of literature in a cliffnote?
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@Michie ~ haha, yes! I want to enjoy the things I do, not just rush through them multi-tasking to get it over with.
I didn’t get that this should be taken as satire until the end - it was so spot-on. I just rolled back over to pet my dog and listen to his breathing.
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OK I guess I'm a bit slow. At first I thought this video was... serious. I was put off immediately. Then I realized it was satire or something akin.
Life is lived in those "wasted" moments referred to.
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Can I get the 6 minutes back I spent watching that video which I thought was optimizing my life but was really making fun of optimizing my life? I mean the first minute or two was practical advice and then around 4 minutes in, it turned parodic, so maybe just 4 minutes back. Then I had to stop and read the comments (there were only 4 at the moment I decided to read them). Then I decided to write my own comment, which is taking more time. The character counter at the bottom says I have 1007 characters left, that is, at the point when I wrote the number "1007" but now even less characters. Is this productive? Will people be mad at me for wasting their time but then they watched the video and that took time. The sun is still out and it's still early and I have a lot I want to do today. But I must say I'm glad I watched the video and read the comments and added my comment. Later I'll spend even more time reading other comments.
I live a full life but I do wonder if I can optimize my afterlife?
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Notice the number of times the narrator says “feel great.” What does that mean? One may “feel great” after taking drugs or having sex, which the lonely little white guy in video never seems to do, by the way. One may “feel great” by eating a good meal or seeing a good movie. One may “feel great” by falling in love or quitting a job. One may “feel great” by having a child or helping the needy. One may “feel great” by finding religion or rejecting religion. One my “feel great” by finding oneself in the context of humanity or losing oneself in a book. Some of these things that make us “feel great” are potentially lifelong, like falling in love. Others may create a sense of euphoria (feeling great), but it is short term and perhaps debilitating, such as taking drugs...or filling every moment of your life with productivity and accomplishment.
If the goal is to “feel great,” as the video implies, then why not explore all the ways to “feel great,” which include, yes, “wasting” time.
Walt Whitman, who just may have a bit more wisdom to impart than the children who created this video, famously wrote,
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
I guess he was wrong according to the kids. Either that or this video is a satire on the FOMO crowd who drive themselves relentlessly in the false belief they can do it all and have it all. If that is the case, then kudos.
I am going to take a nap now.
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This is perfect if all you want from life is to be some sort of robot who lives to serve a corporation.
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When I got to the part where you read a condensed book while you cook I turned it off.
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I actually started to list all I disagreed with in step 1 until I realized that this was a joke.
Note the obituary of biologist Dr. Philip Leder today
"He often said that he got his best scientific ideas while listening to classical music."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/science/philip-leder-dead.html
Everyone needs to give their brains a rest and a chance to recharge.
Everyone should find some enjoyable way to waste time.
That is exactly what I am doing now. Work can wait.
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Nice if you are a rich person who can afford apartment, gym membership, take-out coffee, etc.
This was not worth the 5 minutes.
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Just more pop culture mentality. I am not impressed.
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This is a joke, right? Please? A tragic parody of broken aspirational emptiness.
Go outside.
Breathe in and out.
Smile.
Help someone.
THAT is optimizing your life.
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Literalism is the death of irony.
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by reading the comments first, I optimized my time by going on to other articles. thank you readers.
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Was this written 5 years ago? You're still pushing the ideal of "the hustle" which has turned into workism, our new religion?
There's nothing wrong with spending your time better, but making yourself a perfect human-robot is anti-human. Sometimes I just want to listlessly stare off as a passenger in the car instead of "learning" something new (i.e. staring at my phone).
Also, your person in the video is seriously a single white man? I'm not one to really play identity politics, but that was just lazy. Where are the moms, or dads, or anybody else that actually has to account for other living beings in their day?
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@someone It's satire.
Ah, now I see, this was satire.
Sorry, I think it fell flat.
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wonderful parody
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Welcome to Capitalism.
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I recognize her voice from an online Lexus dealer ad, and this is the corporate take on how to live. Who needs satire when the Times does it with a straight face!
Reminds me of Tim Kreider's column in this paper "The Busy Trap." Google it.
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Is this video supposed to be taken seriously or is it a satire about insecure, middle-class white people?
@Benjamin Schultze
At first I thought it was about insecure middle-class white people. Then I thought, no, it's about insecure upper-class black people. But maybe it's about insecure lower-middle-class Latinos? But then I thought, no, it's about insecure lower-class Scandinavians. But then I thought that's impossible because Scandinavians are never insecure. So it must be about insecure upper-middle-class gerbils who, if you ever spend time with them, are insecure about everything.
This is satire right?
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It took me over a minute to figure out this was satire - once I figured that out, it took me another several seconds to realize it is a boring one. Waste of my time. This was annoying, I could do without the NYTimes featuring this.
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@Sally
Look on the bright side:You wasted less than two minutes.
BUT
You sound annoyed and the residue of that can have a long half life. Take good care of you.
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Hilarious! It is a sign of our nutty times that some commenters seem have taken the video as anything other than satire.
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you sure didn't waste it. right! but you never took time to sit back and think about what you really wanted to do. joseph campbell said follow your bliss. you made sure to leave time to party a lot. right? of course!
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Just eliminate the grasping, greedy, over achievers and the world would be a much better place.
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What I thought would be a useful and somewhat insightful read, was instead, depressing and infuriating.
This writer should productively find a book she wants to read in all its full written glory — to find pleasure in the simple things, such as optimizing this one life we're given to nourish our souls, and not our to-do list capacity.
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For everyone ranting about this, watch until the end. This piece agrees that there's more to life than efficiency, but if you can't take the time to watch the entire six-minute video because you're either too busy or too eager to rant about something you disagree with, you're both missing their point and making it for them.
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A highly-skilled and successful professional friend once quipped:
"Productivity is highly over-rated."
America is so tedious.
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I'm sorry, but life on a production line-treadmill is NOT optimal for anyone.
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After reading the article, watching the video, and reading the comments, I'm still not sure if this piece was meant to be taken seriously or as satire. However, assuming it's the former, I'd say the lifespan equation is woefully deficient - factor in the effects of the cortisol/adrenaline levels that would be induced by this degree of "optimization" and multitasking, you'd wipe out any positive effects. The kind of life depicted in this video is only appropriate for robots.
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@Susan If you want to be real clear on whether this is satire, listen again to Step 5: "Then you die." "You're not quite sure what you did with your life, but you're sure you didn't waste it. Right?"
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Sounds great if you're relatively wealthy. Stopped watching after they got to meal subscription service and ordering coffee. Most Americans such as myself cannot afford to simply order their coffee daily and have their meals prepared by someone else. You're 'optimizing,' by outsourcing. All of a sudden if you're brewing your own coffee and making your own food and this entire 'optimization' falls apart. I suppose NYT is targeted at the upper middle class but I think the author should recognize their privilege. I also believe that optimizing productivity for your 82 years of life is not the correct way to approach life. Maybe if you let yourself relax for 20 hours a week rather than saying "I could be working a whole part-time job!" (which subsequently is incorrect as part time jobs require availability at inconvenient times and often include split shifts) you should stop and smell the roses and,maybe your lifespan will increase from the listed 82 year expectancy. We aren't robots.
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@Brendan It took me watching til the end to understand this was a spoof...turns out the author agrees with you.
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@Brendan you need to watch the whole thing. My takeaway from it was that to live life optimally one should slow down. Efficiency isn't everything - because you're right - we aren't robots.
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I can't tell if this is serious or sarcastic. I"m hoping the latter.
It sounds awful to me--not spending time smelling the coffee and looking at the people in line at the cafe, not having a chance to run into a stranger; not sitting quietly while eating your breakfast, not picking your vegetables, getting to know them, being quiet and unwinding by cooking; being constantly on your phone, relying more and more on technology instead of living in the natural world.
Studies show that the creative process requires focus time and then diffused, relax time. This seems a perfect way to make life efficient and completely un-creative. No thanks.
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My best insights in life all came while I was observing the sun set, or I was on a bus simply thinking, without using my cellphone, or waiting in line, for example. We need less optimization so that we can do better in life.
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I optimize computer code for a living. But personally, I have no desire to be a more efficient widget in the societal machine. I'm hoping Laura (see below) is correct, but I don't think so. I think this is meant to be serious advice on life
Fortunately, none of my menagerie (3 birds, 2 dogs, and a cat) cares about productivity. And it goes back to a question I asked myself in my youth. What do I want from life, quantity or quality?
We may each want more time in this mortal coil. Running through life at break neck speed is not the way to get it.
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It's such a relief to be retired and not feel the need to optimize my time, but simply enjoy it.
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Clever and amusing, but also thought provoking. Thanks for the chuckle this dreary, rainy morning!
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In healthcare institutions there are "productivity units" by which "usefulness" is measured. To what end productivity? Quality? Quantity? A mixture of both? That explains the "people over paper" reminder I hand wrote and placed on my desk. Of course, that also means hours upon hours typing electronic notes long after the lights go out. Are we "things" or human beings? The response to that question is Step i.
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Interesting push towards an anxious pragmatism in getting things done...while forgetting how to find joy in life, become one with nature, away from the awful noise and bright lights...that lead to chronic unrelieved stress...and contributing to our early demise. Not bad, if the intention is to allow more space sooner...and give mother Earth a breather.
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Wow, this video did a terrific job of equating quality of life with productivity and not delving at all into what it is that makes life worth living. What's the point of learning Mandarin if you never actually get to travel and use it? Or of finishing everything off your book list if you're just checking the boxes instead of enjoying, reflecting on, and growing as a person from what you're reading?
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@Miles
Actually, I think I'm following along your line of thought when I answer:
"What's the point of learning Mandarin if you never actually get to travel and use it?"
Maybe simply the joy of learning Mandarin?
After retiring from 20 years of leading a high performing technology organization, the last thing in the world I want to do more of is being productive. Hanging out with my grandchildren, taking long bike rides on back roads, smoking a proper brisket, and making sure the bird feeders are topped off is about all the productivity I am interested in.
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@14woodstock
Me too. I'm 32. It's going to be frustrating waiting thirty more years for my peers to grow up.
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Rather than having to optimize is moving to reduce. No one should have to work at a job more than 35 hrs a week. Life is too precious to spend so much time "making a living" and we should spend more time actually living.
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@AG
We wouldn’t have doctors then! Resident physicians, for example, work 100 plus hours, get paid very low wages and get a lot of flak. But...we do need doctors!
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@Sally Doctors should also not have to work more than 35 hours a week. We'd probably have a lot more folks pursuing careers in the medical field if they knew their precious time and energy wouldn't be taken advantage of. Humans aren't built to work like this- we need time for work and time for rest, time for ourselves and time for others. Western societies' schedules don't support that balance.
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People would certainly do it if they had a choice.
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This fits in well with my New Year's resolution which was to avoid all forms of personal optimization.
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@Lady Lizard This post inspires sonnets, I swear.
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@Lady Lizard Me, too. Isn't it nice to have a resolution you can really stick to?!
The message of this artful animation is sidelined by the jaunty soundtrack, energetic youthful voice and just almost not quite smug knowingness of the narrator. The narrative of getting more by optimizing productivity in the spaces of life's everyday practices seemed in my mind as the 2020 version of Ponce De Leone convincing King Ferdinand to fund his expedition to the "Fountain of Youth".
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Above all, don't waste your time with mindfulness . Avoid being mindful of such pointless things as the sun, trees, flowers, and laughing children. Yes, avoid those laughing children.
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Great satire on optimizing our optimizations and avoiding sleep, mediation and the pure joy of wasting time with those we love, you know, everything that makes life worth living.
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Complete waste of my 5 minutes & 45 seconds. Clearly written by someone who isn't old enough to have realized that our time on earth is meant to be given to & shared with others rather than living wholly for oneself. Maybe that's how robots live.
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@M
It was satire.
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@M spoiler alert: it’s satire. Perhaps too subtle for some
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@M That is what the video was saying. It's satire. Obvious satire.
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Wonderfully done. And it begs the question, what is optimization worth, without prioritization first?
I prioritize my free time away from social media, and that is one way I optimize my life towards my happiness and my goals, without even thinking about it.
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@Lou S.
...said Lou, on social media.
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@DrLFF
I became so anxious and my stomach got so tight listening to this video, i turned it off half way through; perhaps if i had watched it all, i would have been delighted to discover it is a satire. Please, please, tell me its a satire! Otherwise, well, it is probably the worst thing I've ever seen in the NYT
@Lou S. Absolutely. Far more productive optimizations than this video lists are: Limit Facebook and TV to once a month or less. Go for a long walk with the dog instead.
I recently got a new cat who likes to sleep on my feet.
She is optimizing me.
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@A. Stanton
We can learn a lot from cats. They have no interest in "optimizing" their time. They do what they have to do and then they just chill.
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@A. Stanton The best kind of optimization:)
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@Hugh CC
Those cats you are referring to are in the one percent.
I suspect that poor cats-especially cats of color-spend a lot of time trying to stay alive with very little opportunity to chill.
Please read the ninth volume of my under appreciated opus:”The Feline Other: Narratives of Marginalized Cats on the Wakanda-Zamunda Borderlands.
For some odd reason it is not available through Amazon. Try the cat-alogue of the Library of Congress.
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