Your Invitation To Be More Inefficient
Why I always opt to take my bike, encouragement to stop "saving time", and could you be sacrificing to the Optimization God
Hi There! Do you wonder where life is taking you and how you ended up here? Feel behind? Feel out of sorts? Out of place? Out of time? Confused? Don’t know what’s next or what your future holds?
Well, you’re in the right place…welcome wanderer! Consider this a cozy shelter along your path, an invitation to wander through your little, adventurous life with curiosity and joy.
In this week’s letter, you’ll find:
the top 4 reasons why I always opt to take my bike versus the car (the last one is my favorite!)
some permission to take the scenic route instead of trying to “save time”
and a scientist encourages us to STOP worshipping the optimization god
Let’s get started…
I throw on my 2 thick jackets (yes, I have 2!), my gloves and mittens (yes, I do both!) and my favorite purple beanie before heading out the door for my short morning swim at the YMCA. Melissa at the front desk greets me as usual when I check in, but this time she asks me The Question,
“So…do you ever drive your car?”
“Sometimes,” I smiled, “but not very often. If it’s super windy or if I know the bike route requires navigating an extremely busy road or if it would take me over 30 minutes to ride to, then I’ll think about taking my car.”
In short, though, my answer to ‘Do you ever drive your car?’ is no.
But the real question is WHY?
Why do I think traveling around my quaint Pacific Northwest village-town by bike is the best way to get around?
There are a few reasons…
I feel alive!
The sun shining directly in my eyes, the rain pelting my face, the wind whipping through my hair, my senses are awakened when I encounter the elements. I can’t help but feel more alive and in touch with my humanity. In essence, being outside feels like drinking a good, strong cup of coffee, except the effects are longer-lasting!
I become an active, engaged member of my community.
Riding my bike is the perfect speed. I can stop and chat to people along the trails if I want, and I often do. Over the last couple of years, I’ve gotten to know some of the regulars simply because we pass each other so often. Those little conversations here and there—small as they seem—have added up to something surprisingly sweet.
I want to show people (my kids included) another lifestyle—one that is less car-dependent and healthier for both us and the environment.
Every bike ride, whether to the library, grocery store, or kids' activities, is my way of speaking up for the planet and supporting those who strive for safer, more beautiful, more resilient, and more walkable cities.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I want to continually cultivate a life of inefficiency.
Much to my dismay, this was one of the reasons my previous managing broker encouraged (or rather, pushed) me to step out of real estate. In essence, the bike, he said, has to go. You need to be able to get places quickly if need be, I recall him telling me as I listened in disbelief. I agree, sometimes a car is quicker and less hassle. I don’t need to bundle up in layers during winter. I arrive at places without flushed cheeks or rain dripping down my nose. But for all its inconvenience, I’d still opt to take my bike as much as possible because I deeply value the friction and inconvenience in my life. It makes me more resilient, more connected to the world around me, and more appreciative of the treasures that come with slowing down.
Choosing to bike when I could drive, plucks me out of our sleek, screen-obsessed world and feels like a revolutionary act.
It means accepting the daily invitation to turn my attention toward the overlooked but no less shimmery things —to nature’s unfolding seasons, the chipmunk darting across my path, the kindness of a neighbor’s wave, the fresh air in my lungs. It’s in the friction- the chilly temperatures, the wind-blown hair, the bumpy roads, the spontaneous conversation with a stranger on the way to my morning swim- where I feel most grounded. Sounds counterintuitive I know.
But my bike teaches me again and again that life isn’t about rushing from one destination to the next. It’s about fully experiencing the adventures of the murky in-between — the imperfect process — while living in a society that screams at us to hack our way to happiness and eliminate all inefficiency from our schedules.
So, friends, I invite you to ask yourself: Where in your life are you feeling called to take the slow, winding backroads? Instead of always trying to “save time” what if you let everything take the time it takes?
Be curious about…What shifts — subtle or significant — when you give yourself permission to take the scenic route?
Perhaps you walk to grab your morning coffee instead of driving, strike up a conversation with a stranger instead of scrolling on your phone, or take a longer way home just because. What small inefficiencies might you welcome into your day?
What beauty, connection, or unexpected joy might be waiting for you in those meandering moments?
Today, I want to introduce you to political scientist Brian Klaas, who studies the benefits of randomness in our lives. How could I not feature him as our Wanderer of the Week? He offers us some scientific proof for letting ourselves be sucked into the often erratic and unpredictable flow of our lives!
Recently, on his Substack, he wrote a piece called Against Optimization. He writes,
“We are, too often, chained to our checklists, inmates held inside our own inboxes.
There is a problem with this lifestyle, which seeps through every aspect of modern society. I call it the checklist paradox. It works like this:
Doing more often means savoring life less.
…
We love to achieve greatness through hard work and passion, but many of the pinnacles of human emotion emerge unexpectedly, often within the slack that we allow for ourselves to truly live.”
Brian was also interviewed on the Hidden Brain podcast (and it was my podcast of the day on Listen to This).
Here are a few points I just had to jot down for us, but I’d encourage to listen to the whole episode!
“When I realize the uncertainty and lack of control I have over my life, I have become more of an explorer, more of an experimenter. I try things that I wouldn’t try in the past. And as a result of that I’m sort of attuned to the serendipity that happens when something unexpected comes into my life and the joy from it. Of course, there’s unexpected setbacks too, but I’m more able to roll with them because I don’t have this sense that I have to have top-down optimized control all the time.”
“Every moment that I have is influencing the future in some ripple effect that I don’t know how it’s going to play out. There’s something so magical and awe-inspiring about that, that it has just utterly transformed the way I think about my life and its made me a much happier person.”
-Brian Klaas
I finished this letter in the Whole Foods cafe. It’s my get-away-from-home office many days. I could choose a secluded corner, but instead I prop myself up right by the door and see everyone come and go. I love it so much! In the span of time it took me to finish this letter, I had two, no three, unexpected and interesting conversations, all of which made me think about some decisions I have coming up in my life.
I hope you feel encouraged to let your day veer slightly off your original intent and see what happens. Thank you for reading friends!
I’m so glad you’re here!
PS: I’ve been sharing a favorite podcast episode and/or audiobook every day this month as an experiment, so I’ll see you tomorrow!