23. The Right Direction

We put enormous emphasis on optimizing quantities. Our attention is shackled to screens where we make certain numbers go up and other numbers go down. We want to measure everything so that we can control and optimize it. The benefit of this is that we are able to fulfill our material needs more efficiently and with less effort.

But by doing so, we begin to think only about quantities. We create incentives to sacrifice quality in order to obtain better quantitative results. We become so focused on measuring and optimizing, on increasing efficiency and productivity, that we stop thinking about what is happening to us in our day-to-day lives.

It is perhaps not surprising that we then feel there is something missing — as though life is not going as well as it ought to be, even though all of the numbers are moving in the right direction. We are astonishingly productive and yet we still struggle with the same problems of want and worry as we always have.

Our incredible efficiency consumes incredible attention, leaving none to devote to solving our most important problems. In such an inattentive state, we allow our intentions to take control.

Our desires, beliefs, and other intentions dominate our decisions. We make choices that give us more resources, more control, and more pleasure while sweeping under the rug the profound absence we feel inside ourselves. We perpetuate suffering through our attachment to endless wants, worries of loss, contempt for others who seem better off, and delusions about productivity.

We could easily carry on like this for our entire lives, with only fleeting glimpses of the joy we could regularly experience. It is only by allowing our attention to shift away from quantities and towards the quality of our experience that we ourselves begin to move in the right direction.