What do you do to make your life more (in)efficient?

Hi,

I had to meet a deadline. So in the editorial kitchen I quickly threw some things in a bowl until they could pass for a salad and ate it – in one hand a spoon, in the other an ergonomic mouse – behind my screen.

I was in a hurry because I had to finish an article about software which has the preference for efficiency ingrained and should also make our own lives more efficient. But that’s not necessarily better because think about what you lose when you’re pushing too hard to be efficient ...

And in the meantime, my colleagues were having a nice lunch together. And I sat there with soundproof headphones (on which I listen to the sounds of a coffee shop, much to the amusement of those same colleagues) writing down my article and shoving down raw vegetables.

Ah, the irony.

Anyway, the article is now online. Read the article here. What do you do to make your life more (in)efficient? Let me know in the contributions below the story.

#NerdAlert

There is an episode of a series for every life situation. Visiting a newborn that turns out to be quite ugly? Seinfeld. Watch the Seinfeld scene. Does your date not like olives? How I Met Your Mother. Watch the scene from HIMYM. Planning to take a break in your relationship? Friends. Watch all the ‘we were on a break!’ scenes.

(Yes, I am a child of the nineties and the noughties and a big fan of American shows. Please share your own pop culture associations in the contributions, I am very curious!)

But for a few years now, a new pop-culture-to-refer-to category has been added to my list: xkcd. Those who have been following me for a while already know that I am a big fan of the cartoonist Randall Munroe, whom I’ve interviewed twice already.

In his "webcomic about romance, sarcasm, mathematics and language" he packages (nerdy) wisdom three times a week into comics with stick figures. From how hacking works Check out How Hacking Works. to what uncertainty looks like for a cancer patient. Check out Lanes.

When I started writing about efficiency, colleague and developer Lode Claassen promptly sent me all kinds of xkcd’s on the subject. How about this one ... Check out The General Problem.

...or this one ... See the cartoon here.

Before you go...

...interested in Randall Munroe? He recently did a great interview Listen to the interview. with Ezra Klein in the Ezra Klein Show.

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