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Saving Time vs Enjoying Time
From travelling to reading
If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn’t measure what it’s supposed to measure, if it doesn’t reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system can’t possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce.
— Donella Meadows
Rory Sutherland gives a classic example of what engineers would do when tasked with reducing the time it takes for lifts to ferry people up and down a building.
It’s somewhat obvious. They may get the numbers from buildings that have the best time rates, analyse the kind of elevators they have, and see if they can implement something similar or even better.
The idea is to make people get to their floors faster without passing out. It is not a guarantee. Faster lifts are likely to tip individuals towards fainting or transient vertigo once it starts moving. And despite this assignment to the…
