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About this quote

What does it mean?
Being efficient is useless if the life you are living has no meaning.
In plain terms
Efficiency does not matter if you have no real purpose.
What can you take from it?
Purpose matters more than how fast you do things.

Where it applies

  • career decisions
  • work habits
  • existential reflection

Putting it to work

  • evaluating goals
  • prioritizing meaning
  • auditing routine

Questions to consider

  • What are you optimizing for in your life?
  • Does speed matter if the destination is empty?

Another view

It frames efficiency as inherently negative when it can also serve meaningful goals.

More from Douglas Coupland

  1. There's a hardness I'm seeing in modern people. Those little moments of goofiness that used to make the day pass seem to have gone. Life's so serious now.

    Permalink to quote #53
  2. We barely have enough time to figure out who we are and then we become bitter and isolated as we age.

    Permalink to quote #55
  3. Her friends have become who they've become by default. Their dreams are forgotten, or were never formulated to begin with.

    Permalink to quote #52

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