image source: New Yorker article by Cal Newport – cached*
Edward Tenner at TED 2019:
Summing up, to be truly efficient, we need optimal inefficiency. The shortest path may be a curve rather than a straight line. Charles Darwin understood that. When he encountered a tough problem, he made a circuit of a trail, the sandwalk that he'd built behind his house. A productive path can be physical, like Darwin's, or a virtual one, or an unforeseen detour from a path we had laid out. Too much efficiency can weaken itself. But a bit of inspired inefficiency can strengthen it. Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to follow a circle.
Cal Newport suggests we not dump email, but “no longer allow it to be used in such a way that guarantees our misery.”
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