More

Or Less

Part of living life well, it seems, is intentionally thinking through what we pursue more of, and what we pursue less of.

Sounds obvious, until we consider the signals society streams at us, and the temptation to just go along with the flow (we’re all so overwhelmed after all).

Because in society’s playbook, more is almost always deemed a good thing.

More content, more advertising, more products, more features, more apps, more toys, more AI.

But is that what we’re really after?

• Do we really want more features on our iPhones?

• More apps?

• More features in our CRM?

• More features on our TV?

• More features in our car?

• More products in our supermarket?

• More choices in our social feed?

• More content to amuse us?

• More social connections?

• More emails in our inbox?

• More meetings in our day?

Who is this actually good for? I’m pretty sure it’s not us, the end user.

To be clear, there are definitely good things to want more: Kindness, generosity, happiness, food for the malnourished, medicine for the sick.

And there are obvious things we don’t want more of: War, suffering, pandemics.

And then there are things we can debate: More funding for the arts for example…

More versus Faster

Part of the problem is that we’ve conflated faster (which is usually a good thing) with more (not necessarily a good thing).

For example, on boarding a new employee. The faster they get up to speed, the better.

Or pick any business process, the faster you complete it, usually the better.

And the typical way to complete a process faster? Remove stuff. Remove inefficiency. Do less.

Faster is usually good when it equals Less. Less steps. Less bureaucracy. Less red tape.

Faster is usually bad when it equals More. More content slop comes to mind.

The obvious exception: simple pleasures. Sharing a meal with a friend. ‘Optimising’ that and making it faster isn’t likely a good thing.

The Wisdom of Knowing What You Like

Perhaps the real unlock: knowing what you like. It’s often harder than it sounds. And comes with experience.

Ask most people what they really want in life and they’ll stare off into the distance, contemplating, but not quite sure…

Once you’ve done enough exploring and trial and error to figure out what actually works for you, you can stop chasing more.

You’ve found your thing - the restaurant, the tool, the hobby, the work, whatever - and you’re content, you stick with them because they enrich you.

And that’s liberating, not limiting.

You’re not constantly searching; you know what you like.

You can be intentional with what you actually, really, definitely want more of.

And the rest falls away. Less. Life gets simpler.