- Motion controlled doors
- Escalators
- Keyless entry
- Hydraulic boot openers
- Precut salad
Why should the goal be to remove all manual effort and discomfort from our lives?
Since having a child, I am bombarded daily with special pillows to support walking, sitting, and crawling.
There are a myriad of noise machines, lights, oils, and scents that promise to solve the problem of babies not sleeping.
But are fake solutions to real problems.
The only solution to lack of sleep for parents, is “be tired for a few months”.
Lack of sleep is a real problem.
But even worse than fake solutions is the industry for fake problems, producing plastic novelty products to solve “problems” that don’t exist.
An endless parade of mass manufactured plastic tat has invaded our lives, masquerading as a “problem to be solved”, destroying our planet for a product with a shelf life of days, or even hours for the sake of a £5 transaction and next day shipping:
Banana cases, egg peelers, electric can openers, belly button cleaners.
I couldn’t live without some things:
The time pressure of modern life are simply too much.
My marriage probably wouldn’t survive without a dishwasher.
A certain amount of automation is a good thing.
But as much as possible,
I should try to avoid the temptation to remove micro efforts from my life.
It’s these little movements that keep a body healthy and strong in later life.
- I don’t want presliced carrots I want to grow and cook my own food
- I don’t want smooth skin I want calloused hands from doing good work
- I dont want a robot for my chores, I want a body that’s conditioned and capable for old age
- I don’t want unlimited entertainment, I want to be able to sit with myself and quietly reflect.
Don’t automate all the little things that make up a rich, balanced life.
I’d just add this quote from James Clear, which summaries this so much better than I did:
The modern world is optimized for convenience, not improvement.
The default path is usually the more convenient path. But the body and mind only grow when placed under a stimulus. If you want improvement, you have to choose something different than convenience
It can be lovely to have a day where you do not push yourself, but it rarely works out well if you have a life where you do not push yourself.
