Why? For efficiency’s sake of course
I’ve left this place post-less and unattended for too long and I apologize. All I can say is that I’ve been busy. Alas, the wheels of thought have resumed turning and I have once again ideas to write about.
Let me tell you something about myself. I’m very interested in the concept of efficiency. I’m probably mildly obsessed with it in fact. The desire to make things “better.” What’s the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) moto? “We don’t make things, we make things better” or something like that. Sounds like an ideal place for me. The point is I love efficient things. However, I don’t think I’m the only one.
It seems to me that it’s a trait all of humanity has even if individual persons do not. What’s my evidence?
Let’s start with biology. An aspect of our existence we have no control over. Nature favours efficiency. You don’t have inefficient designs. When our species stopped brachiating our shoulders and upper bodies changed because it was a hindrance on the ground. The giraffe and it’s neck, the turtle and it’s shell, a duck’s webbed feet, etc. etc. The point is that nature seeks the most efficient design for the required function, not the most inefficient.
Let’s move to something more tangible; human societies. It seems that people always want to make things more efficient. Clay pots were always made to be more comfortable, sleeker, smoother, tougher. The tools to make those clay pots were also increasingly made to be more efficient. The tools and weapons in general of all primitive societies were made to be more efficient. Sharper edges so cutting could be faster and… yeah, more efficient. Stronger hafts so they wouldn’t break as often so that they didn’t have to be made as often because making the same tool over and over is… yeah, inefficient.
Consider how modern companies function. What’s the driving force? Profit right. Well what increases profit? Seems to me like the answer would be efficiency.
Cars on the road are made more fuel-what? Efficient.
The human obsession with “more” of everything and anything is always fed by an increase in efficiency. The question is whether the obsession is a desire for “more” or simply a preoccupation, known or unknown, conscious or unconscious with efficiency.