Optimization
Oct. 19th, 2005 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetI've been having a productive morning. The laundry is sorted and the washer and dryer humming madly. I've cleared up the mess of coke pallets in the laundry room, breaking them down for recycling pickup tomorrow. I went through all the mail, shredded the garbage with numbers on it, recycled most of the rest, paid the bills and put a new pile of catalogs in the bathroom for Christmas shopping.
While all of this has been going on, I've been thinking about a conversation about goals and priorities that I've had with a friend over the past few years. He rarely makes the same choices that I would and vice versa and at one point he revealed that he is occasionally nervous that I think the less of him for that. I responded that after years of puzzlement, I had finally figured out that, unlike myself, he's not optimizing his life for happiness. He's perfectly willing to be unhappy with a situation rather than upset the balance of his life. Some people try to maximize money, or fame, or professional success, or creativity, or altruism.
So that's my question today--what are you optimizing your life for?
While all of this has been going on, I've been thinking about a conversation about goals and priorities that I've had with a friend over the past few years. He rarely makes the same choices that I would and vice versa and at one point he revealed that he is occasionally nervous that I think the less of him for that. I responded that after years of puzzlement, I had finally figured out that, unlike myself, he's not optimizing his life for happiness. He's perfectly willing to be unhappy with a situation rather than upset the balance of his life. Some people try to maximize money, or fame, or professional success, or creativity, or altruism.
So that's my question today--what are you optimizing your life for?
