Two thrillingly wise takes on how many of us have complicated our lives intentionally and unintentionally through the nature of modern products and our intention to optimize aspects of the day to get more out of… things.

Matheus Lima doesn’t think anything is worth consuming at more than 1× speed, because life happens at that speed, and you’re kidding yourself that you’ll even retain the content well at a faster rate:

The feeling that there’s too much to consume and not enough time. That you’re falling behind if you’re not optimizing every minute. The queue never empties. Finish one podcast, three more dropped today. Clear your YouTube watchlist, the algorithm refills it overnight. There’s always fucking more.

Terry Godier laments the time and sanity we have each day, and how we spend it with products, has been eroded by the toxic proliferation of updates and notifications:

Nothing you own is finished. Everything exists in a state of permanent incompletion, permanently needing […] The problem was never how many things you own. The problem is that owning means something it never used to. Everything you buy is the beginning of a relationship you’ll be maintaining until one of you dies or gets discontinued.

Luxury is (and probably always has been) the absence of distractions and incomplete tasks. We should all strive for completion and quiet, particularly when it’s very much free or cheap to access.