Utility

Productivity. Growth. Action in the pursuit of future pleasure. The work done in this moment to augment the next one. Utility promises outcomes–health, happiness, success–but it neglects process. It ignores the real value of this moment: the potential to be present.

Humans have benefited immensely from the concept of utility. We understood early on that hunting, gathering, and farming would yield more food than sunbathing. We also learned that the more we hunted, the better we got; the more we studied our crops, the richer our harvests. In other words, we worked to survive.

But it’s no longer clear what we work for. Abundance now threatens survival more than scarcity. There are fewer mouths to feed–but plenty of lives to improve. These metrics, though, are harder to measure. There is no ceiling on well-being. No cap on welfare.

Without an upper bound, we don’t know when to stop. Work creeps into relationships, leisure, and rest. We eat to be energized, read to learn, and meditate because it’s “good for us.” Utility is hidden behind most things we do.

Ironically, a utilitarian approach to rest undermines the very outcome we seek from it. When rest feels productive, it's not true rest, and when we don’t truly rest, we aren’t very productive. The paradoxical and unspoken secret to utility, is to stop seeking it.

Find something you enjoy for the sake of doing that thing, not the outcome it produces.