Long-term #1
From Old Age by Simone de Beauvoir Trans. Patrick O’Brian, (London: Penguin, 1977), pp. 446:
This also happened to me. My readers required optimism of me above everything, particularly in so far as the fate of women is concerned: the end of La force des choses and my most recent pieces disappointed this expectation and I was sharply rebuked. But I refuse to be owned by a fixed image of myself.
Most problems are thorny. Solutions to these kinds of problems aren’t clear-cut because they are interconnected with other issues and hard to disentangle. Although I write here with the speed and irreverence of a punk band, I like to take my time and muse deeply on a problem. This can sometimes be perceived by others as indecisiveness or a slowness to act. While some people have a bias towards action, I seldom do. I am more inclined to spend hours sharpening my axe before chopping down a tree. I wouldn’t instinctively attempt to chop it down with a blunt instrument. Unfortunately, some problems require immediate responses — a necessity that seems to be increasing as the pace and demands of existence has grown exponentially. People fear the potential consequences of taking a break or pausing, as it could lead to a series of cascading failures in various areas of their lives. We intuitively feel that our internal structure — both physiological and psychological — isn't robust enough to bear the weight or pace of our current load. Our initial reaction is to compartmentalize. While compartmentalisation might work for a while, eventually, we may feel overwhelmed and even crumble under the weight of it all. We are surprised when we read stories of people who lash out or have psychological breakdowns, but in reality, there's nothing particularly surprising about it. What's even more annoying is that many people can't afford the time or money to take time out to build their mental supports, or update and improve the existing ones. If this seems far-fetched, I dare you to take a two-week silent retreat without feeling guilty or thinking you've dropped the ball. Even though we know we need that, we just can't bring ourselves to do it. That two-week retreat might grant us perhaps three to five years of sanity. We can either go willingly, or go there kicking and screaming. Put a pin in that I might come back to it. I, perhaps just like others, sometimes feel disheartened when my efforts don’t yield immediate results. People expect updates and if you’re not working on something with quick returns or tangible outcomes, you are lagging behind in life. This ‘need for speed’ or ‘need for instant payoff’ is encouraging impatience and short-term thinking in society.
Short-term thinking means making decisions for immediate benefits without considering their long-term implications. While it's ideal to think long-term, this is a luxury for those with financial security and time. If you are broke and facing extreme challenges, your primary concern would be how to feed yourself and your family — the sooner you do that the better. It’s not that you are not concerned about the future; you just want to be alive because there is no future for the dead. The way a person without means makes decisions is different from the way someone with means does. For instance, a farmer might opt to plant a crop that can be harvested sooner, even if it's not the most profitable, just to keep a roof over their head. You might think, ‘That's not sensible.’ But the real question is, sensible for whom? Do you face the same constraints? Besides, do we always make the most sensible choices? I am not making a case for short-term thinking but I am mostly pointing out some factors that can inform certain decisions. Personally, I think short-term about certain things and long-term about others. Every day, I'm beginning to believe that the incentives are aligned to reward short-term thinking. I don’t mean this just for those without means. Even those with means can't help but grab at low-hanging fruits. Here’s the obvious one: We expect company CEOs to consistently surpass the revenue of the previous quarter. By setting such expectations, we're essentially asking CEOs to perform magic, and then we're surprised when they resort to cutting corners. A CEO under such pressure is less likely to make decisions that prioritise employee welfare or show concern for negative externalities, such as environmental degradation. In politics, a politician might prioritize policies that offer immediate benefits to gain popularity, rather than making decisions beneficial for the country's long-term health. That’s if they don’t empty the public treasury for their own gain and that of their cronies. Politicians aside, long-term thinking in Africa can be challenging. Certain foundational necessities must be in place: health, security, rule of law, education, electricity, critical infrastructure, and more. The more of these things a country lacks, the more its citizens tend towards short-term thinking. These citizens often aim to secure as much as they can in the present, given the uncertainties about the future.
What does this lead to? People become less willing to cooperate, resulting in increased divisions, bullying, anxiety, depression, resource depletion, and business failures. It also prompts capital flight, brain drain, heightened insecurity, and more. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, certain people can afford to live sustainably while others, in certain places, can’t help but cook with firewood. You can’t be holier than thou and tell them that they are contributing to global warming. What does that even mean? Don’t they deserve to eat? Short-term thinking is a response to constraints. And the sooner those constraints are dealt with the better we are overall. Now, back to companies. The hustle culture suggests that if you're not hustling 24/7, you're useless, even the scum of the earth. This attitude has made many companies treat their employees poorly. You're lucky if they compensate you adequately, but they often aim to dominate your entire life, leaving no room for rest. Because if you rest, you're seen as not being a team player. Even when you’re facing significant challenges, companies expect you to leave your problems at the door. A side note: there are people who, after treating you poorly, say, ‘it's not personal, it's just business.’ What in heaven’s name does that even mean? Do they mean that businesses are made up of aliens or non-humans? Business is personal. It's all about relationships, and it's humans, not chickens, that run businesses and build these relationships. One of the primary sources of unhappiness in modern life is the workplace. Many people are deeply unhappy with their jobs, and this unhappiness can bring intense sorrow. When one area of your life is causing distress, it inevitably affects your overall well-being. In project management, three things matter: cost, time, and quality. A change in any one of these impacts the other two. The less time we have for ourselves, the more our quality of life diminishes. Yet, companies now expect us to do more in less time while still delivering quality work. While managing these work demands, we also have to maintain our relationships with friends, family, and partners, engage in hobbies, and stay informed about global events. As the world reduces the time we have to respond to things, the more the quality of our responses diminish. That’s why online discourse is such a crapfest.
To be continued …Thanks for reading. If there's anything you'd like to chat about, or if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you. :)