Brian Klaas

there's all sorts of areas in the social world where we are told to squeeze every ounce of inefficiency out of the system. This is true for our lives as well, right? The life hack approach is to always get that little extra 1% of efficiency into your life. And the problem is that that means that there's a cost to it, which is resilience.

there's all sorts of areas in the social world where we are told to squeeze every ounce of inefficiency out of the system. This is true for our lives as well, right? The life hack approach is to always get that little extra 1% of efficiency into your life. And the problem is that that means that there's a cost to it, which is resilience.

Because if you are optimized and absolutely efficient to the limit, the system or your life becomes brittle. It becomes one where there's no give. So when something inevitably goes wrong, as it always does, there's no ability to absorb it. And all of us sort of know this with our daily schedules, right? I mean, if you pad something by 10 minutes, it's less efficient.

Because if you are optimized and absolutely efficient to the limit, the system or your life becomes brittle. It becomes one where there's no give. So when something inevitably goes wrong, as it always does, there's no ability to absorb it. And all of us sort of know this with our daily schedules, right? I mean, if you pad something by 10 minutes, it's less efficient.

Because if you are optimized and absolutely efficient to the limit, the system or your life becomes brittle. It becomes one where there's no give. So when something inevitably goes wrong, as it always does, there's no ability to absorb it. And all of us sort of know this with our daily schedules, right? I mean, if you pad something by 10 minutes, it's less efficient.

But when something goes wrong or you get stuck in traffic, you end up still being on time. And what we're basically doing on a social level is we're taking out that buffer. We're saying the buffer is evil because it's inefficient, which is why when you sort of think about the last 25 years of global history, it's a series of these sort of small changes that have created cascading catastrophes.

But when something goes wrong or you get stuck in traffic, you end up still being on time. And what we're basically doing on a social level is we're taking out that buffer. We're saying the buffer is evil because it's inefficient, which is why when you sort of think about the last 25 years of global history, it's a series of these sort of small changes that have created cascading catastrophes.

But when something goes wrong or you get stuck in traffic, you end up still being on time. And what we're basically doing on a social level is we're taking out that buffer. We're saying the buffer is evil because it's inefficient, which is why when you sort of think about the last 25 years of global history, it's a series of these sort of small changes that have created cascading catastrophes.

And it's why I think we all have this sense that the world is constantly falling apart at a quicker pace than usual. I think it is partly because it is.

And it's why I think we all have this sense that the world is constantly falling apart at a quicker pace than usual. I think it is partly because it is.

And it's why I think we all have this sense that the world is constantly falling apart at a quicker pace than usual. I think it is partly because it is.

Yeah, so this is where I sort of put myself in the sort of perspective of a hunter-gatherer living 200,000 years ago, right? Their world was extremely unstable and unpredictable day to day because they didn't know if a predator would eat them. They didn't know if their crop would fail or if their gathering would fail.

Yeah, so this is where I sort of put myself in the sort of perspective of a hunter-gatherer living 200,000 years ago, right? Their world was extremely unstable and unpredictable day to day because they didn't know if a predator would eat them. They didn't know if their crop would fail or if their gathering would fail.

Yeah, so this is where I sort of put myself in the sort of perspective of a hunter-gatherer living 200,000 years ago, right? Their world was extremely unstable and unpredictable day to day because they didn't know if a predator would eat them. They didn't know if their crop would fail or if their gathering would fail.

They didn't know if they would have their next meal or if they would die in childbirth, right? Really scary stuff happening all the time. but their overall world never really changed. So you think about generation after generation, if you know how to hunt and you know how to gather, you can teach your kids and they're gonna have the exact same strategy for life.

They didn't know if they would have their next meal or if they would die in childbirth, right? Really scary stuff happening all the time. but their overall world never really changed. So you think about generation after generation, if you know how to hunt and you know how to gather, you can teach your kids and they're gonna have the exact same strategy for life.

They didn't know if they would have their next meal or if they would die in childbirth, right? Really scary stuff happening all the time. but their overall world never really changed. So you think about generation after generation, if you know how to hunt and you know how to gather, you can teach your kids and they're gonna have the exact same strategy for life.

So parents taught children how to live and it was very stable across generations. Now, think about our world. We live in a world that is hyper-optimized and seemingly stable day-to-day. Google Maps tells you how long it's gonna take you to get to work and usually it's pretty close. You click a button on Amazon and the package arrives at the right time or at least on the right day.

So parents taught children how to live and it was very stable across generations. Now, think about our world. We live in a world that is hyper-optimized and seemingly stable day-to-day. Google Maps tells you how long it's gonna take you to get to work and usually it's pretty close. You click a button on Amazon and the package arrives at the right time or at least on the right day.

So parents taught children how to live and it was very stable across generations. Now, think about our world. We live in a world that is hyper-optimized and seemingly stable day-to-day. Google Maps tells you how long it's gonna take you to get to work and usually it's pretty close. You click a button on Amazon and the package arrives at the right time or at least on the right day.