Efficiency Poll
What is efficiency?
I’m listening to an interview with Marlon Brando as he was talking about the psychology of man, systemic racism, and a country’s interest in studying what makes us weak so we’ll be better consumers rather than studying why 5 teenage boys will stomp a crippled child to death — reminds me of Forest Gump running away from the truck, and Jenny calling, “run, Forest, run!”.
Objectivity matters
Comparison is death, yet objective measurement is critical for growth, there’s no denying that. We need a measure of how productive we are, crops are, schools are, and perhaps that’s all the word really means, just another perspective or use.
Brando says that we won’t spend the money to study why people would do something like that, which obviously leads directly into why there are so many school shootings and nothing done about them. In any case, this has everything to do with efficiency, because behind every good capitalist economy is an efficient manufacturing machine.
Behind this question, of course, is the idea of how productive we are, for our own purposes or to serve something greater than ourselves. We (the country, the economy, people who do studies and tell us the results) are obsessed with behaviour. How can we understand behaviour so we can manipulate people to buy deodorant, as Marlon mentions, or to motivate corporate workers to perform better, to become better team members.
Corporate personality
In the 1920’s or 30’s the Myer’s-Briggs test was developed to establish exactly that, but it failed to predict the productivity of American workers, so it was abandoned. Now psychologists use the Big 5 test to categorize human behaviour. The corporate mission to understand how humans work and operate in a group has been outsourced outside of psychology.
You can go to Gallup and buy a Clifton Strengths test to find out your top 34 strengths, or to take the test in order to determine what all are, and buy the results of only your top 10. Why would you do this? Well, you wouldn’t, unless you’re a small business owner who wants his employees to be happy and placed in positions that suit them and their strengths.
Why corporations study personality
Or you would be the human resources manager of a corporation who is doing their job, and perhaps uses the test results as a reason to give a salaried employee a disciplinary action, and a performance review in order to test their resolve and make them quit so they don’t have to fire them and have their unemployment insurance account take a hit.
So, what do we think? Is efficiency a good thing, bad thing, or neutral? Is it any different than productivity? Productive, but on another level? Do we need both words, or are we fine with ‘productivity’? Is there really a difference?
Is efficiency just a fascist word that was hammered over and over to make Jews in a missile factory work faster and faster because the slowest one would get hung from the rafters as an example? Mussolini made the trains run on time, but is that efficiency or just standard functionality?
If the trains aren’t running on time, hypothetically, is it because basic bitches run them, or because it doesn’t matter? Italian trains are still beautifully and fantastically on time, but Italy’s not fascist anymore, despite the government’s current far right leaning. So, you don’t need fascism to have order. But…is that the same as efficiency?
So what do you say, is efficiency over the top, or to be expected? Vote, and leave a comment if you have more to say on the matter.
MBTI and Big Five… my guilty pleasure! (Sorry, I don’t actually have an answer to the efficiency question yet; would need to think…)
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I took a look into efficiency this morning, away from the confines of an economy that requires continuous growth, and my findings are interesting.
Indigenous people have a natural and objective view on efficiency. Farmers need metrics so they can understand yield, that's where the almanac came from. For 10's of thousands of years we've known when to plant so we don't die. That's why we have stone henge, and new grange, and ancient structures that act like calendars.
They also imply seasonality -- make hay when the sun shines, and eat from food stores when it's too cold to grow food. That means you work when there's work to do, and when there's not, you rest. Simple. There's no shame in drinking tea and chatting with friends when you've done enough.
The question at the heart of efficiency is, "what is enough?", which is the question at the heart of shame (being enough), which is the same question as self-esteem (the healthy "what I can do" kind, not the unhealthy comparison kind).
So I took the time to compile some ideas from ancient cultures about efficiency:
- Do only what is needed
- Take only what you need and leave the rest
- Moving at a natural pace is most energy efficient
- Time is not the highest value, going faster doesn't always help
- Fast action done at the wrong time is wasteful
- We can go faster only if nothing is lost
- Take action at the right time to reduce energy and minimize waste
- It's not efficient to force what isn't ready
- Unnecessary steps are removed to increase efficiency
- Remove blockages at bottlenecks so things flow easily
- Action happens when responsibility calls, not because of arbitrary mandates
- Appropriateness is more important than haste
- Saving time isn't an issue as long as quality doesn’t drop
- Responsibility is knowing what is yours to do and doing it well
- Community comes together for harvesting or when it's necessary
- Doing everyone else's job and controlling other people's choices is not efficient
Relationship matters, not just output. An efficient process that damages the individual, community, family, and environment is a poor trade.
Teamwork:
People help each other so work is lighter and more efficient. We did it together, well, and no one was overburdened.
Responsibility:
What’s my role, and what tasks fall in someone else’s role? We have a responsibility to the craft, each other, and to the community.
In many ways, the most efficient path is the one that ticks all the boxes for the task while preserving harmony, meaning that you're able to continue making and doing, which benefits you, your community, and the world.
When you look closely at efficiency, the question becomes, "who benefits?". If it's extractive then someone loses and quality is sacrificed in order to lower cost.
So, in a nutshell, nothing in excess, limit waste, and there's no need to rush. Sounds very familiar.
It reminds me of the Radiohead song, on OK Computer called Fitter Happier.
Like a cat
Tied to a stick
That's driven into
Frozen winter shit (the ability to laugh at weakness)
Calm
Fitter, healthier and more productive
A pig
In a cage
On antibiotics