Resisting Over-Optimization

Or, how I found myself watching a very mediocre season two of Picard and didn't worry about it too much.

Scrolling Fatigue

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Raise your hand if you've had one of these nights: you're settling in on the couch at the end of a long day, hoping to watch an episode of a new show, or even a movie. You open Netflix (or your primary choice of streaming app) and you recognize one of the cards. 

"Oh, that's that thing that so-and-so recommended to me. She said it was good." 

And yet you continue scrolling. Maybe another familiar title pops up. "Ooh, I missed this in the theaters, I didn't realize it's streaming already!" Or "I keep meaning to watch this one."

You scroll by. Netflix exhausted, you switch to another app. (HBO) Max shows you a carousel of new docu-series, you navigate to the TV tab and are reminded of all the great scripted shows they used to promote. "Maybe I should just watch Succession again?" 

Before you know it, an hour has flown by. The window has closed, decision paralysis won. You've watched nothing. It's bedtime. 

Okay so not every night goes like this. But aren't there too many nights like this? 

Over-Optimization

Maybe you're not like this with streaming TV/movies all the time, but you're like this with your next toothbrush. Or the new blender you bought last year. Or a fresh set of towels. We scour Wirecutter and The Strategist and read endless reviews and ratings in an attempt to guarantee that whatever we purchase, it's the Most Highly Rated of that thing. The best one. 

It's not good enough to buy one that simply meets your needs. It has to be the best. The most optimal. 

In a world where time and money are precious, AND we have an endless pool of options around how we spend them -- it makes so much sense that we find ourselves in this optimization mindset. 

And of course for people like me who have worked in product development, that mindset can directly be applied to our job success. Even a 1% increase in conversion on a certain form or landing page could mean millions of dollars in additional revenue. Optimization in this realm can be quantified, measured, and wrung to yet another decimal point. Marginal gains are certainly not a novel concept.

But what happens when we focus on it in our personal lives? What does a 1% or even 10% 'gain' mean when it comes to immeasurable things like what sunglasses I should buy, or what movie I should watch tonight. Is a product rated 4.5/5 actually 10% better than one rated 4/5? 

Opting Out 

I briefly considered titling this section "I'm OVER optimization". 

It's probably unlikely I'll escape this mindset entirely, but at some point a few months ago, I decided I at least wanted to solve the decision paralysis around my evening TV watching. 

I had been visiting my local branch of the SF Public Library somewhat regularly, primarily to check out books and use their printer. When I first saw the shelves of Blu-rays and DVD, I thought to myself – that's great! (for people who don't subscribe to a bunch of streaming services). I didn't think it was for me. But one day I walked by and saw there was a copy of the Dungeons & Dragons movie (the one with the Most Optimal Chris, Chris Pine, this is the only correct answer) ready for borrowing. I'd been waiting for it to come out on streaming, but it was actually available right here. Right now. 

(A brief aside to mention that I didn't have a dedicated Blu-ray player at the moment of this revelation so I was fully prepared to unearth and setup my PS3 in order to use it, but in a completely serendipitous, manifest-y twist, a neighbor in my local Buy Nothing group had listed their functional Blu-ray player THAT NIGHT and I had arranged to pick it up on my way home. This was all meant to be.)

I took the Blu-ray home, and instead of browsing around all of my current streaming services (Disney, Hulu, Netflix, HBO, Amazon) for the Nth night in a row, I put the Blu-ray into the player, sat down with my dinner, and watched it straight through (the movie was silly and a delight). 

Within a week, I became That Person Who Rents Blu-rays. In significantly narrowing down my options for what to watch (and creating a little positive scarcity by way of a lingering due date to watch a particular movie), I started watching WAY more things. I finally watched a bunch of last year's Oscar contenders. Women Talking. Tár. Babylon. The Fablemans. So many movies that I’d sincerely wanted to watch, but never felt like the “best” choice for a given night — that is, until I created some scarcity around their availability and just committed.

It worked. Maybe these were not the “best” things I could’ve watched with my time. Maybe if I’d scrolled through all those streaming services “enough”, I’d have found a Perfect Movie, one that was ideally suited for that night, that mood. But if it’d taken a whole half an hour or more to optimize for, then was it really a better experience than the movie I pressed play on within a minute?

Make it so

A few weeks later this resolve was put to a harder test. In an effort not to restart my Paramount Plus subscription until absolutely necessary, I picked up Blu-rays for seasons one and two of Star Trek: Picard. 

Season 1 was fine — I watched it over the course of a week, sitting down to 1-2 episodes a night while having dinner and casually checking my phone. Season 2 was chaotic and a mess. And to be honest, if I had been streaming it instead of watching a physical copy that was due back at the library within a week, I would've found myself pausing the series entirely and scrolling Netflix again. 

It’s tempting to question whether I should’ve stopped and watched something else during the time I spent finishing the second season, but I think in the end, the issue wasn’t whether I could’ve found something better. The issue is whether I would’ve found something better immediately. And given the option to watch *something* versus *nothing*, something definitely feels like the better choice.

Especially because even the most mediocre of things turns into fodder for me to ponder in unhinged 4,000 word posts.

Tell me, what have you over-optimized on, and has it been worth it?

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Other things:

• I so loved Quinne’s piece here about birds in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. I had the joy of showing her SF’s gardens last weekend and it was so fascinating to realize how different the flora and fauna are between the two.

• My dear friend Rebecca has a piece in Autostraddle about grief and reflection.

• Anne Helen Petersen’s post about what our devices can measure and what they cannot feels absolutely in conversation with my Fitbit revelations.

Offerings:

• Free bi-weekly Creative Drop-In sessions continue! The next ones will be Sept 1, 15, 29 — more information here.

• Sustainable Creativity for Burnt-Out Tech Workers, is open for registration! Classes start September 18 — you know someone who this is for, pass it along to them!