Life of (f)Utility: Hacking the Human Race

Variations - when to maximize and when to minimize

Abstract

This article provides a new construct for analyzing all decisions in life, from the mundane (What do I wear today?) to the complex (What is the meaning in life?). I suggest a new way of thinking that can tremendously empower and simplify your life and business: “Maximize variation where it counts, minimize variation where it doesn’t.”

Minimize variation where it doesn’t count

Over the holidays, I was explaining to my cousin the way I try to do so many things the same way every day, day in, day out. He then asked: “Why?” A very good question, indeed. As a teenager, I remember experiencing the peace and comfort of having structure to my day. But now - as a 32 year old engineer and father of two, I realize a more fundamental benefit: adding variation to the mundane tasks of the day is inefficient. Superficially, it might appear that I’m devoting too much mental energy, time and effort to the mundane things, but on the contrary - it is because those things are unimportant that I do not change the way I do them. Those behaviors become instinctual, or second nature. By freeing my mind of the “small things” - I reserve it for the more important things.

Maximize variation where it does count

At an early age, I learned to appreciate the value of mental creativity. It was nearly 17 years ago when I was a sophomore in high school taking trigonometry. There was a homework assignment to do problems 3,6,9, 12 and 18 on page 173 (or whatever, I can’t remember exactly); and problem 18 was the mother of all problems. We showed up the following day and no-one figured it out, except me. I was so proud. I then got up in front of the class and explained to everyone the solution. It was a great feeling that I still remember to this day. (This actually happened on at least a couple occasions.)

I remember thinking to myself: why am I the only one that can solve these problems? I don’t remember feeling smarter than anyone else. I wasn’t. I didn’t even graduate in the top ten of my class. The answer to that question was this: I stubbornly thought about the solution and I re-arranged the pieces until they ‘fit’. It was only my persistence in moving the pieces around that allowed me to arrive at the answer.

Now… that was fun trip down memory lane… how do you apply this to your life? Naturally, this is much more difficult to concept to apply. To fully cover it, would require a much longer blog post…. perhaps a book, really, which I’m not interested or, perhaps, even capable of writing. This concept, however, of consciously deciding where to apply variations in your life, I am convinced, is a useful idea. It requires you to consider all the ‘problems’ in your life objectively and on equal footing. Lay them on a continuum from ‘dead simple’ to ‘extremely complex’ . On one end of the spectrum “what do I wear today?” On the other end “what is the meaning of life?”. On the former end of the spectrum, you should minimize variation. On the latter, maximal variation will be required to arrive at the answer. Where does this variation come from? what kinds of variation? Your creativity will supply the answers.

7:41am… I’m late for work!

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