orjSep 21, 2025
Ole Begemann

I love this from Roman Mars: “the march to make things more and more efficient makes the world a worse place.” E.g. by making ad measuring more efficient, we “erased all of the extra money that made all the journalism and all the pop culture that you cared about […] possible.”

Starting at ~18:25 min†, or read the transcript on the episode page. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/641-99pi-anniversary-special-15-for-15/

† I can’t give you an exact timestamp thanks to dynamic ad insertion. But I bet the ads are more efficient!

Sep 21, 2025 at 3:06pmWeb
Show threadacbSep 21, 2025
@ole @jimbob One quote about efficiency vs. effectiveness which has stuck with me is the idea that the most efficient institution would be a hospital with only one bed, which is always occupied.
Show threadBakunin BoysSep 21, 2025

@ole @jimbob I call this "the work" and "the dress". "The work" is what the restaurant does. A chef freshly prepares a meal. "The dress" is the service staff making sure you have a good night, the music, etc. Eventually businesses realise that you can lie about The Work if you still do The Dress. So, the restaurant wait staff can just microwave a meal and pretend there's a chef out back (BTW that's probably most efficient, not a ghost kitchen).

That's also not "efficiency" so much as it is deskilling. There are relatively few countries which invest in automation, because you end up paying workers more for a more automated workflow, as it needs more training. Businesses are never interested in that. They prefer to focus down on deskilling so they can keep worker salaries low. Not sure how eg Germany manages it tbh.

Show threadShadSterlingSep 22, 2025
@ole the only reason life exists is that natural processes are inefficient
Show threadquixoteSep 21, 2025

@ole It's not "efficiency." It's what it means to different people.

To the ones who mattered, it meant making money.

Well, you really only get one thing. What they thought they wanted was money, and they've got money. We're heading for the world's first trillionaire. They've lost everything else though, as you point out.