The paradox of Efficiency
date
Jan 5, 2023
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psychology
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How the Pursuit of Efficiency is causing us to Burnout.
Last updated
May 6, 2023 09:01 PM
This is also published in Substack and can be read here.
There was a famous thought experiment that was conducted back in 1950’s called "Prisoner's Dilemma". Two prisoners were arrested and held in solitary confinement with no way to communicate with each other. The police unsure about who committed the crime, planned to rely on interrogation to determine the punishment.
Each prisoner had two options: to remain silent or to betray the other.
The possible outcomes were:
Outcome 1: Both of them stay silent. In this case, both prisoners serve two years in prison.
Outcome 2: Both of them betray the other. In this case, both prisoners serve five years in prison.
Outcome 3: One of the prisoners betrays, while the other stays silent. In this case, the prisoner who betrays is set free, while the prisoner who stayed silent serves ten years in prison.
It should be clear that the best solution for the prisoners is for both of them to remain silent; they will be sentenced to a minimum of two years. However, we should also consider the conditions of the scenario.
They are kept in solitary confinement with no means of speaking to or exchanging messages with each other
Faced with such a scenario, when deciding whether to stay silent or betray the other prisoner, each must consider the effectiveness of their strategy based on their assumptions of the other prisoner's choice.
Here comes the 'Dilemma' part of the experiment. From Prisoner A's perspective, if he thinks Prisoner B will Betray, it makes sense for him to Betray too, since serving 5 years is better than serving 10. Even if he thinks Prisoner B will Stay silent, it still makes sense for him to Betray. After all, who would want to spend 2 years in prison when they can be set free? So, regardless of what the other prisoner chooses, Betraying seems to be the optimum strategy.
The Prisoner's Dilemma and its Reflection in the Modern World
This experiment demonstrates how two individuals, motivated solely by self-interest and with a clear method for maximising their combined benefits, fail to achieve their goal. Unfortunately this also illuminates the current situation in which many of us feel burnt out, despite how advanced our civilisation is.
Imagine a scenario similar to the Prisoner's Dilemma, where we have two employees in a modern corporate environment. Now assume that they both stumbled upon an Instant Grocery delivery service, which they feel will spare them the time it took to go out and buy groceries. They can now utilise this extra time for leisure (sleeping, watching a movie, exercising, socializing, etc.) or on work (optimising and being even more productive).
Putting this into a similar matrix we have -
Here similar to the Prisoners Dilemma we have the following outcomes.
Outcome 1: Both employees complete their allocated work within the stipulated work hours and then use the extra time to relax. In this case, they both receive a payoff of 5.
Outcome 2: After completing their allocated work, both of them used their extra time to optimise even more and work harder. This resulted in them doing more work than was necessary. This leads to a scenario where there was no need to incentivise, as both of his employees were working overtime. And so their employer was able to get away with compensating them less, with a payoff of 2.
Outcome 3: Employee A uses the spare time due to the service's convenience to optimise and work harder, while Employee B uses it to relax. This results in Employee A doing more work than the other, so the employer must incentivise in order to get the maximum amount of work done as quickly as possible. Therefore, Employee A receives an extra payoff of 10, while Employee B receives none.
Now, if we consider wealth as the freedom to not work or to relax and spend time as desired, then it is obvious from the matrix that the best strategy for both employees is to relax. However, similar to the earlier analysis, the players must consider those strategies in the context of what the other players in the game might do. Therefore, it is clear that the dominant strategy for both employees is to work.
If Employee B relaxes, Employee A should work as they will receive a payoff of 10, which is better than a payoff of 5. Similarly, if Employee B works, Employee A should also work as they will receive a payoff of 2, which is better than a payoff of zero.
It's important to note that the payoffs and explanations in this example are completely fictional. In reality, there is no evidence to suggest that working harder will necessarily lead to an improvement in one's lifestyle. Despite this, many people still choose to subject themselves to additional employment and stress.
Technological advancements and the availability of services that make our lives better and more efficient offer us the opportunity to have more free time to relax and enjoy life. However, they are causing us more harm than good. Consider the example of the recent influx of AI art and text generation tools like DALLE and ChatGT. These tools were developed to help us automate boring tasks and make our lives better. But as soon as they were released, it sparked a flurry of articles and Twitter threads discussing how these tools will change the industry, replace artists and programmers, and how to leverage them to get ahead of the competition. We often forget that these tools were created to help us relax and let the machines do the time-consuming work. Instead, we view these services as ways to increase the amount of time available for work, so we can gain an edge over our peers.
Why do we persist in this behaviour despite the obvious drawbacks?
One primary reason for our conduct in the Prisoner's Dilemma scenario can be attributed to how we are wired as an evolutionary species. This preconception of gaining an advantage over others has been deeply rooted in our primal minds due to the environment in which we had to survive. It was this "survival of the fittest" mentality that has extended to the survival of those who had the advantage of the other mindset.
The other most prominent and well-known reason is today's competitive and profit-oriented working environment. With the ever-present risk of being laid off and replaced by others, it has become essential to find ways to make the most of our working time and squeeze every last drop of efficiency out of the hours we have to work. As a result, more and more people are trying to find better ways to be productive and extend their working day in order to stay ahead of the competition.
It isn't because we find inherent value in the excessive hours we put in, although many of us have convinced ourselves that we do. It's because the rules of the game we play dictate that working those hours and outperforming everyone else is our best option.
When we see long weekends, we think "work before play,".
This mentality of gaining an advantage over others has been ingrained in our brains, and so it has become an integral part of our decision-making process.
The only way to break out of this cycle is to recognise our ingrained need to gain an advantage over others. We must be mindful of how rigged the rules of the game we play are, and consciously choose to prioritise our own health and wellbeing. We need to be aware of our need to be productive and efficient, and not let it cloud our judgement.
In the end, we need to remember that the pursuit of efficiency should be for our own benefit, not for the benefit of others.