Efficiency is the enemy of romance

Claude Chats:

• [[ Efficiency vs. Romance in Ancient Wisdom-Part 1 ]]
• [[ Efficiency vs. Romance in Ancient Wisdom-Part 2 ]]

Most serious and profound problems/questions/issues can only be discussed only in the form of jokes.

Far too many people fantasise about quitting their jobs—even if it is well paid but not rewarding. The romantic imaginings of how one’s newly found time will be spent or the rush from uncertainty all inspire a kind of purpose or urgency that efficiency just cannot create.

But follow through on this thought and most of that cohort of aspiring quitters will call your achievement to do so without a successor job lined up as irrational and taboo.

There is nothing efficient in quitting one’s job. Except that maybe you could more efficiently allocate your newly acquired free time to find an even more dissatisfying job.

Romance can make you efficient. I imagine this is how a lot of books get written—or at least started—

So, efficiency seldom leads to romance; it mostly leads to a reality check.

Efficiency must give way to romance and vice versa. The outcomes

A morning that starts slowly — seeing the creamy froth grow over the aromatic coffee grounds as I make a pour-over coffee — or an evening of slow “meal prep” brings with it the kind of calm that affords my mind the space to reach such conclusions that seem like an aphorism. In fact, it feels absurd to reach such a deep truth in nothing more than an instant, from an action with little-to-no consequence. My artistic and creative friends often tend to also romanticise this mundane activity.

खशःझ

And then there are days where a morning starts at the office coffee machine or a TV dinner picked up on the way home from work. Actions with similar outcomes but completed in a utilitarian manner, emphasising efficiency over romance. Economical use of one’s time and, in some sense, money. This life feels mechanistic and there is no one really romanticising this version of existence.

I am unsure if this tension between efficiency and romance emerged through observing the aging process or on account of my long-term immersion in cultures over the last decade that are vastly different from the ones I grew up in. But, when I take shelter in the wisdom of books, it feels also to me a historical tension between, say, the philosophies of Lao Tsu and Marcus Aurelius. And, in the space of lived memories, I draw contrasts between my experiences of living in the East and West.

The operating values of an Indian culture, even today when I visit family, still has moments where it feels like efficiency is deprioritised and this feels so much more wholesome. It is indicative of a long-term exposure to a Western consciousness where profession seems to be central to how

in my daily existence but youth is seldom spent thinking about being efficient.

Why my mind was contemplating this probably has to do with two concepts from my online meanderings

Being effective at either requires one to commit to one of these ways of being. And effectiveness is quite far from begin efficient.

• Do rituals make us more effective or more efficient? Reference daily rituals of some artists?