Optimizing Ourselves to Death

Yeah….this is right on -> Optimizing Ourselves to Death by Nick Maggiulli

For several years, I dutifully ran with a Google Fit tracking my every mile time. It was interesting and useful to know my speed and distance. But a few years ago, I just quit…and never turned it on again.

I still run events and I enjoy setting personal bests. But tracking every single run? No thanks. That’s not why I run. Like many folks, running is is weird Ultimate Multitask where I’m exploring streets, seeing the world, letting my thoughts settle, listening to long conversations (i.e. podcasts), listening to random music, getting my heart moving, and on and on. It’s not to accomplish anything. The running is the point.

And I agree with Nick Maggiulli that the habit of tracking everything in an effort to push more accomplishment has gone to far. Tracking data when you have specific outcome that you’d like to achieve is one thing (it’s essential), but tracking data to just generically optimize is too much and feeling anti-human.