Anti-Optimization

What Are You Trying to Optimize For?

A thought:

Too much focus on hyper-optimization and maximization is anti-aesthetic.

From an aesthetic perspective, I prefer slow, strong, studied, graceful, elegant, and purposeful.

Anti-optimized fitness

For example when it comes to diet, fitness, and nutrition, there is too much focus on the ‘one hour window’ of feeding after you workout. My problem with that is this:

After I workout and immediately go home and have a massive meal, I get ‘food coma’ and cannot do anything creative or productive the next 3-4 hours.

What I’ve been doing instead is this:

After working out, fast until dinner-time, and then have a massive meal for dinner.

Then during the day, I just drink a lot of black coffee and water. This keeps me sharp and keen all day, even though that by eating immediately after working out might be more ‘optimal’ for my muscular growth.

What do we desire to maximize/optimize in our lives?

I think the big problem in life:

We are trying to optimize for optimization sake.

Or we are lead to optimization via fear. The thought that if we don’t optimize our lives, we will somehow miss out on something (FOMO — fear of missing out).

Perhaps there is also a ‘fear of not optimizing’ (FONO) — the notion that if we aren’t always maximizing or optimizing our lives, we are somehow ‘sinning’ or being a ‘bad person’ or somehow wasting our lives.

When too much focus on optimization is bad

My thought:

The billion-dollar industry of ‘optimization’ and self-help stuff seems to be bad; it brainwashes us to think that there is a certain ‘best method for everyone’, instead of encouraging us to think and act by ourselves, and to follow our own gut and instincts.

For example silly things like:

What is the optimal time to wakeup or go to sleep? The optimal number of times to drink coffee a day, or the optimal time to stop drinking coffee? How can I ‘optimize’ my sleep?

Too much of this ‘quantified self’ nerdiness defeats the purpose. I think we should be more loose with our habits, routines, and modes of living, and instead just focus on what really matters to us.

More focus on purpose, less focus on techniques and methods.

What is important to me

I cannot speak for you, but I will try to speak as frankly about myself.

This is what I care for:

My artistic productivity and creation
My ability to come up with new ideas which interest and excite me, which I am excited to share with others
My personal aesthetics (strong and muscular body, low body fat percentage). Also, my physical strength (one rep max in powerlifting)
My ability to have overflowing physiological strength and energy throughout the entire day.
The feeling of deep hope and optimism towards the future.

I am still interested in experimentation of different modes of living in order to maximize these things in my life. But ultimately I am becoming more and more loose with my habits and routines in life. Too much focus on optimization seems inelegant and unaesthetic.

It all comes down to a matter of taste

When it comes to morals, ethics, aesthetics, fashion, art, design, or modes of living, it all comes down to taste. Your personal taste. What tastes sweet vs what tastes bitter to you. And the funny thing: often the most bitter tastes taste the most sweet to us (a lovely and hyper-bright light-roasted espresso).

With everything in life:

YOU CHOOSE!

ERIC