Thank you Rohan for this amazing article that put into words something I’d long been thinking but wasn’t sure how to put into words! Over optimization, over thinking and over analyzing ruins everything! You have so many great examples. Optimization is indeed a Monkey’s Paw. In our rush to get as much as possible out of everything, we end up with very little. It is a classic paradox. Yet another case of something our society tried to do and we thought would be amazing but it didn’t turn out so well. The results of over optimization have made life worse and less enriching and enjoyable. Allow me to use some different examples I’ve observed. Hipsters all try to be as edgy and different as possible but then their style became popular and every guy wanted to look like a hipster so now ironically, Hipsters are no longer countercultural or avante garde their now mainstream. The Hippies were countercultural in their time but not so much anymore as now everyone wears tie dye, wears round sunglasses, says words like “dude”, “cool” and “yo man”, Hippie clothing styles can be seen everywhere, and every college kid and their grandmother has a peace sign on their car. Great works of literature like Moby Dick, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Monster, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Streetcar Called Desire, etc. are all great works of literature not just because of the universal moral messages they contained but because they all had a unique writing style to them. Today the way books and poetry are written has become standardized and formulaic same with stories. This is why no one buys contemporary literature. You will not find anything like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Cat in the Hat, Romeo and Juliet, or The Canterbury Tales today. Not to mention sensitive readers and wokeness in the literary field. Art all looks the same as everyone tries to be as out there and as off the wall as possible. Nothing like the Mona Lisa, The Scream, Starry Night, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Last Supper, etc. exists today. Everyone in music sounds the same because they all use autotune and all the songs are written by the same four guys in Scandinavia. That’s why Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Prince, Tom Petty, George Michael, Celine Dion, Marvin Gaye, Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Nat King Cole will stand the test of time and Taylor Swift, Kesha, Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Kendrick Lamar will not. Video games aren’t nearly as fun anymore because now they’ve become so hyper focused on amazing graphics, a complex plot and adding all these stupid bells and whistles they forget to make a good game. For instance, franchises like Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Halo, Madden, and Pokémon have long since lost their way and died out. Disney, once a giant in entertainment is dying out because they never come up with anything new or unique they just do a by the numbers movie like Wish or a remake of something they’ve already done. They could never make a masterpiece like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Fantasia or The Lion King today! Same with Hollywood, oh yeah! I’m so pumped for the 50th Spider-Man movie and that CGI remake of that old beloved cartoon they’ll inevitably butcher and mangle horribly beyond recognition. Seriously, these people deserve to go to jail for what they did to franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby Doo, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Flintstones, Thunderbirds, He-Man: Masters of the Universe, Jem and the Holograms, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and Underdog! So many special franchises have been ruined because they’ve done them over and over again to milk money out of them: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Shrek, Marvel Superheroes, DC Superheroes, Power Rangers, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Men in Black, Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Frankenstein, Dracula, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Garfield, SpongerBob SquarePants, TMNT, My Little Pony, Thomas the Tank Engine, I could go on until the end of time!
All great examples Noah! One of the problems that I plan on writing about on my personal blog is the fact that Internet creates a winner take all structure, which means that a small number of voices get disproportionally represented.
As you mentioned, literature becomes homogenized, as well as movies and TV shows, and this is primarily because the people who are making these shows have a very specific world view that doesn’t actually map onto what the majority of people believe
It makes me wonder how much of this is just an unconscious attempt to mold reality to fit our desires.
Like the woman who longs for her husband to see and reflect the image she holds of herself in her mind—only to be disappointed because, deep down, she doesn’t fully see herself either.
Or the basketball coach chasing perfection, so consumed by the game that they lose their soul along the way.
Thanks for reading Emma, I think there’s definitely an aspect where we want reality to fit our desires. I think another aspect is that a lot of people refuse to acknowledge that there are some things that we will never truly understand, and it’s beyond our control. I think that aspect is very scary to a lot of people, so they try to boil things down into a simple and quantifiable process, without realizing what they give up along the way.
Good one -- there are mathematical reasons why what you write is true. Optimization as you describe it is a meta linear refinement, and as such, new concepts cannot break into the idea space. It ends with parthenogenesis, and then entropy takes over. You make the best one cell bacterium. But it will never swim, because it cannot grab a tail. If you're interested in understanding this in detail, read this: https://empathy.guru/2019/03/24/closing-the-doors-on-disruptive-innovation-and-bacterial-parthenogenesis/
This article really makes you think. Optimization has made life more efficient, but in the process, a lot of the beauty and spontaneity seems to have disappeared. You can see it in sports, movies, even the way people interact. I wonder if there is a way to keep progress moving forward without losing the things that make life feel rich and meaningful.
Thank you for reading everyone 😀
Thank you Rohan for this amazing article that put into words something I’d long been thinking but wasn’t sure how to put into words! Over optimization, over thinking and over analyzing ruins everything! You have so many great examples. Optimization is indeed a Monkey’s Paw. In our rush to get as much as possible out of everything, we end up with very little. It is a classic paradox. Yet another case of something our society tried to do and we thought would be amazing but it didn’t turn out so well. The results of over optimization have made life worse and less enriching and enjoyable. Allow me to use some different examples I’ve observed. Hipsters all try to be as edgy and different as possible but then their style became popular and every guy wanted to look like a hipster so now ironically, Hipsters are no longer countercultural or avante garde their now mainstream. The Hippies were countercultural in their time but not so much anymore as now everyone wears tie dye, wears round sunglasses, says words like “dude”, “cool” and “yo man”, Hippie clothing styles can be seen everywhere, and every college kid and their grandmother has a peace sign on their car. Great works of literature like Moby Dick, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Monster, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Streetcar Called Desire, etc. are all great works of literature not just because of the universal moral messages they contained but because they all had a unique writing style to them. Today the way books and poetry are written has become standardized and formulaic same with stories. This is why no one buys contemporary literature. You will not find anything like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Cat in the Hat, Romeo and Juliet, or The Canterbury Tales today. Not to mention sensitive readers and wokeness in the literary field. Art all looks the same as everyone tries to be as out there and as off the wall as possible. Nothing like the Mona Lisa, The Scream, Starry Night, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Last Supper, etc. exists today. Everyone in music sounds the same because they all use autotune and all the songs are written by the same four guys in Scandinavia. That’s why Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Prince, Tom Petty, George Michael, Celine Dion, Marvin Gaye, Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Nat King Cole will stand the test of time and Taylor Swift, Kesha, Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Kendrick Lamar will not. Video games aren’t nearly as fun anymore because now they’ve become so hyper focused on amazing graphics, a complex plot and adding all these stupid bells and whistles they forget to make a good game. For instance, franchises like Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Halo, Madden, and Pokémon have long since lost their way and died out. Disney, once a giant in entertainment is dying out because they never come up with anything new or unique they just do a by the numbers movie like Wish or a remake of something they’ve already done. They could never make a masterpiece like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Fantasia or The Lion King today! Same with Hollywood, oh yeah! I’m so pumped for the 50th Spider-Man movie and that CGI remake of that old beloved cartoon they’ll inevitably butcher and mangle horribly beyond recognition. Seriously, these people deserve to go to jail for what they did to franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby Doo, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Flintstones, Thunderbirds, He-Man: Masters of the Universe, Jem and the Holograms, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and Underdog! So many special franchises have been ruined because they’ve done them over and over again to milk money out of them: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Shrek, Marvel Superheroes, DC Superheroes, Power Rangers, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Men in Black, Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Frankenstein, Dracula, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Garfield, SpongerBob SquarePants, TMNT, My Little Pony, Thomas the Tank Engine, I could go on until the end of time!
All great examples Noah! One of the problems that I plan on writing about on my personal blog is the fact that Internet creates a winner take all structure, which means that a small number of voices get disproportionally represented.
As you mentioned, literature becomes homogenized, as well as movies and TV shows, and this is primarily because the people who are making these shows have a very specific world view that doesn’t actually map onto what the majority of people believe
Thank you for reading!
This is a great think piece.
It makes me wonder how much of this is just an unconscious attempt to mold reality to fit our desires.
Like the woman who longs for her husband to see and reflect the image she holds of herself in her mind—only to be disappointed because, deep down, she doesn’t fully see herself either.
Or the basketball coach chasing perfection, so consumed by the game that they lose their soul along the way.
Thanks for reading Emma, I think there’s definitely an aspect where we want reality to fit our desires. I think another aspect is that a lot of people refuse to acknowledge that there are some things that we will never truly understand, and it’s beyond our control. I think that aspect is very scary to a lot of people, so they try to boil things down into a simple and quantifiable process, without realizing what they give up along the way.
And yet, overcoming the fear of uncertainty is the very thing that sets you free.
Good one -- there are mathematical reasons why what you write is true. Optimization as you describe it is a meta linear refinement, and as such, new concepts cannot break into the idea space. It ends with parthenogenesis, and then entropy takes over. You make the best one cell bacterium. But it will never swim, because it cannot grab a tail. If you're interested in understanding this in detail, read this: https://empathy.guru/2019/03/24/closing-the-doors-on-disruptive-innovation-and-bacterial-parthenogenesis/
Thanks for reading Chuck, I’ll take a look at that article for sure
This article really makes you think. Optimization has made life more efficient, but in the process, a lot of the beauty and spontaneity seems to have disappeared. You can see it in sports, movies, even the way people interact. I wonder if there is a way to keep progress moving forward without losing the things that make life feel rich and meaningful.
It’s a tough balance for sure, but I think the first step is to acknowledge that something is being lost in the first place