Brad C

I'm back baby.

I wrote one post, then vanished. For a long time I had envisioned this as a way to show off my level of professional brilliance, but then after a while I realized that I don't think that highly of myself. The notion of ever calling myself a “thought leader” made me puke a little bit in my mouth, y'know?

Today's rant; I hate optimization.

“Hate” is a strong word. It is also accurate. I really, truly, deep in my soul hate the concept of optimization. Hearing the word “optimal” in almost any setting makes me have a visceral reaction, and my mood darkens for hours to follow.

I wasn't always this way. For a long time I was definitely someone who thought “why take long road when short road faster” and then that turned into a belief that if I just optimized things enough I could do and have everything. Then it didn't work, and the immediate follow-up was a belief that I just didn't understand the topic enough. If I was just smarter, if I was just more well-read, if I was just better I could be more optimal and THEN the magical future state would be achieved. Turns out basically nothing works that way.

There are SO MANY great quotes written about this exact phenomenon. “The man who loves walking will walk farther than the man who walks quickly” and the like are incredibly poetic ways of expressing this sentiment. Being a meathead deep inside, I often to default to Jim Wendler's take: “Stop racing to red lights.” Driving 80km/h in a 50 zone only gets you to the next red light faster, you still end up waiting for the green before you can go again. Just drive 50, dingus. Not to get all Musashi on this, but once you see this once you start to see it everywhere. What's the secret jiujitsu move that will let me beat the pros? What's the secret workout that will give me huge arms and sick abs? If it only took 2 clicks instead of 4 to access the data then everyone would use it and we'd be so much better off!

Quite frankly, I don't think I've ever seen anyone who cares about optimizing that has actually optimized their way to anything of worth.

The person for whom 4 clicks is too many clicks doesn't care about what they're viewing. They want it to be too inconvenient to access, because they don't care about using it. The person for whom the workout isn't delivering gainzzz fast enough doesn't want to workout. You need to at least like the process as much as you care about the outcome.

I observe this in my professional sphere all the time, people for whom the idea of being “data-informed” is a status symbol. They can't tell you what they want to be data-informed about, what would be useful to know, how to interpret it, how they use it, etc. They just know they're supposed to be “data-informed” because that is the mark of being a good and serious professional. (Find those actionable insights! Show off how smart you were to look at a spreadsheet for an answer!)

The most liberating thing I've done for myself in the last few years was rejecting optimization. I live a sub-optimal life in a sub-optimal world! And that's fine! I'm only growing 0.5lbs of muscle a month instead of the maximum 1.25lbs? Who cares!? I'm happier, I get more time with my young child, and in 5 years time I will get to the same place. Your data request took 3 days instead of 1? The work is probably better!

“But what if it's an emergency”

My brother in christ I am a data analyst. No one dies at my job. There are no emergencies.

“But there are deadlines!”

Deadlines are not emergencies. If you care about something you probably work on it before the deadline, if you don't care you leave it to the deadline. And guess what, your lack of planning doesn't mean shit to me.

The craziest thing about this is y'know who actually improves stuff in a meaningful way? The people who actually gave a damn. The people who think “4 clicks ten times a day seems like a lot. If I could get that down to 2 clicks I would save myself some time...” Those people make things better in ways that matter, because they can directly see how to improve shit.

The guy that really likes running will throw down a sweet marathon time because he loves the process of getting there. The guy that wants to put “BQ Marathon” on his insta handle probably won't get there no matter how many optimized VO2max programs he does if he doesn't like running. One is a person who likes running, one is a person who wants the shiny bobble at the end of a run.

Death to optimization.

All glory to caring about what you do.