Cat trying out for the Olympics

[carverofchoice]

@peepeep

There must be something in the medical literature … that would support you doing something counter to your crazy auto-erotic-auto-matica syndrome tendencies, no?

Sure, though I do it because it feels like it benefits my life A LOT and it is a much better addiction than my past addictions. My wife says she’s okay with this one and I don’t want to have to drop it and find something new to fill that hole when this one feels pretty healthy and productive and my life is the best it’s ever been in every category. Why would I want to disrupt any of that just because someone else has a different preference for themselves and for them to feel healthy and happy? I will leave them to pursue their desired differences.

Outside of that, my confirmation bias excuses are that I automate things to save me time from doing things that feel like are a waste of my time (to me), so I can free up time to spend on things I actually prefer to spend time on because they are more of my preference.

Other things I hate having to spend so much time on because they FEEL like a waste of time (to me), include: making food, eating, driving, etc. Many of those are things other people really enjoy and find pleasure in or are meditative for them. I sincerely respect that. To me, they FEEL like a waste of time and I only do them when I have to, because I have to, or because someone I care about needs them done, and when they are necessary, I try to do something else enjoyable when I have to do them, such as play an audiobook, which DOES feel enjoyable and productive to me. Since I can do that at the same time I do the time-waster activities, they are then somewhat tolerable because I can still do something that feels like less of a waste of my time.

Luckily, my wife LOVES to cook, so that works out for us. My wife also basically has to drive because she gets car sick if she’s not the one driving, so that works out perfectly for us. I can spend time on my phone while she drives. Win-Win.

If I could affordably automate my cooking, eating (nutrition), driving and more things so I never had to do them again, I totally would.

I love automating everything I can. I already rarely ever manually turn lights on or off in my house now. Most rooms in my house automatically control lighting.

I doubt you’ll do this, but you should read the book Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - by Hans Rosling. You would actually love some of the things in that book. Among many other things, he brings up examples of how much automation has revolutionized the world for the better.

Take just the Washing Machine for example:

The Industrial Revolution saved billions of lives not because it produced better leaders but because it produced things like chemical detergents that could run in automatic washing machines. (p. 219). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.
…
I was four years old when I saw my mother load a washing machine for the first time. It was a great day for my mother; she and my father had been saving money for years to be able to buy that machine. Grandma, who had been invited to the inauguration ceremony for the new washing machine, was even more excited. She had been heating water with firewood and hand-washing laundry her whole life. Now she was going to watch electricity do that work. She was so excited that she sat on a chair in front of the machine for the entire washing cycle, mesmerized. To her the machine was a miracle… It was a magic machine. Because that very day my mother said to me, “Now, Hans, we have loaded the laundry. The machine will do the work. So now we can go to the library.” In went the laundry, and out came books. Thank you industrialization, thank you steel mill, thank you power station, thank you chemical-processing industry, for giving us the time to read books. Two billion people today have enough money to use a washing machine and enough time for mothers to read books—because it is almost always the mothers who do the laundry.(p. 220). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.

So let’s be realistic about what the 5 billion people in the world who still wash their clothes by hand are hoping for and what they will do everything they can to achieve. Expecting them to voluntarily slow down their economic growth is absolutely unrealistic. They want washing machines, electric lights, decent sewage systems, a fridge to store food, glasses if they have poor eyesight, insulin if they have diabetes, and transport to go on vacation with their families just as much as you and I do. (pp. 220-221). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.

Unless you are willing to forgo all these things and start hand-washing your jeans and your bedsheets, why should you expect them to? Instead of finding someone to blame and expecting them to take responsibility, what we need … is a realistic plan. We must put our efforts into inventing new technologies that will enable 11 billion people to live the life that we should expect all of them to strive for. The life we are living now on Level 4, but with smarter solutions. (p. 221). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.

Or there is his TED Talk which also helps to make the point I’m making about automation:

The magic washing machine | Hans Rosling

Summary: His mom used to have to “waste” a ton of time on washing clothes by hand (believe me, I know all about this because I lived in Haiti for years, and hand washing clothes is a LONG process and complete waste of time). In some places I would pay some local ladies to wash my clothes for me (partially to help them out, but it also saved me time, but sometimes I chose to do it myself). Big waste of time that could be spent doing other things…and BILLIONS of people agree. BILLIONS of people use washing machines to “automate” this time-wasting task so they can do something else. Human productivity and quality of life was incomprehensibly improved because of the washing machine alone…let alone TONS of other things that automate countless things in our daily lives. Automation frees us up (frees up our time) to progress and advance in ways that were previously nearly impossible because of all the “necessity” time wasters we previously had to spend our energy and time doing.

So, why would I want to UNDO any of that? No, I will absolutely not go back to manually hand washing all of my clothes for the same of:

doing something counter to your crazy auto-erotic-auto-matica syndrome tendencies

Bah, my friend. I do obsessive crazy auto-erotic-auto-matica partially BECAUSE I strongly believe in what it represents. It’s part of the ideals I strongly believe in…and have some factual evidence in support of it. There are certainly some downsides or compromises, and things that need consideration, etc. But in general, I love and support automation. It freed me up to be able to read 80 books last year (I have like 4,000 more books on my NAS that I still have waiting for me to get to ), all while working the equivalent of multiple full-time jobs, plus family time, etc. My life is much more enriched, safe, productive, happy, etc. because of such automation.

I respect those who want and CHOOSE to do all their laundry by hand and have less time for other things. Maybe it’s meditative for them or whatever else. Great. But it is not for me. I prefer to let automation do that for me, and free up hours and hours of grinding work, not to mention the strain on your hands being subject to soap and water for hours so often. As I said, I’ve been there, done that. No thanks. De-automation is not for me.

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This thread/video makes an interesting point for automation too. In some cases it isn’t just for saving time. In some cases like this, it can make things possible that are hard to impossible to accomplish without automation. The OP here said there were flowerbed visitors, and created an awesome and creative automation to resolve issue, including without any hard coming to said visitors. Automation like this is just so awesome!