Getting Busy

Excuse me—do you have a minute? It’s very likely you don’t. You’re probably reading this hastily over a half-toasted bagel, or on your way to class. If you’re reading online, it’s possible that you’re skimming over these words with glazed eyes as another professor’s well-meaning lecture drifts past you.

What’s the likelihood that you’re sitting back in your comfy chair, legs on the table, sipping some tea as you take a leisurely look at the daily news? Almost zero.

And why would it be otherwise? Who has the time to spend 30 minutes digesting student-authored trash when you could be doing a million other things instead? Everyone is busy.

My point exactly.

Harvard students are notorious for their overly packed schedules, but who isn’t busy these days? The middle school student squeezes in homework between a day of classes, an evening of extracurriculars, and a night of quality instant messaging. The young adult population works 9 to 7, returning home just in time for “Desperate Housewives” or “24” before turning in to wake up for the gym the next morning. And “senior citizen” is now synonymous with “overachiever,” as 76 year-olds like Warren Buffett continue their careers indefinitely, while even the grandparents are likely to win a bridge championship now and then.

Don’t think that it’s a Harvard phenomenon—it’s not. High schools, colleges, and offices around the world are filled with people dying for 30-hour days. If only everyone had more time! It’s a phenomenon that seems to cross class and cultural lines. It’s not just college-educated investment bankers that run themselves ragged; even the cashier at the local grocery store likely has a heavily scheduled life.

But is that necessarily a bad thing? Isn’t ultra-efficiency the highest marker of human advancement? Finally, men, women, and children around the world are getting the most out of their days. Even leisure is becoming more efficient: Why watch “Grey’s Anatomy” at 9 p.m. on Thursdays when you can either TiVo it or watch it online when you have more time?

And if the constraints of the solar system prevent the days from getting longer, can’t we all just sleep less? Caffeine has been working its magic for decades; science has now brought us Modafinil—what next? Hopefully the complete elimination of sleep. As Gustav Graves says in Die Another Day, you can sleep when you’re dead. Now that’s efficiency. God bless modernity. And economics.

What are you doing still reading this? Don’t you have somewhere to be?

Karan Lodha ’08, a Crimson sports chair, is a government concentrator in Lowell House.