This phrase feels very familiar and probably already exists in a different context. I could look it up, but I can't be bothered because I would still use it for this article regardless of any other possible meaning it may have.
This idea came to me the other day at the pub when I was having a few beers with a friend.
This friend of mine really likes watches and collects them. He was telling me about his latest "adventure" looking for a particular kind of watch. I don't remember the details about the watch itself because I don't care about it and it doesn't matter to this story anyway.
What does matter is that he was telling me that the first few stores that he found were selling the watch he wanted and had a 10-day estimation on delivery. He really wanted the watch as fast as possible, so he kept searching to see if he could find any place that would deliver it to him faster.
Then, he asked me "How many days do you think it's been since I started searching?".
"No idea," I said, to which he replied, "12 days as of today!"
We shared a laugh, and I told him to pick up his phone and just buy the damn thing in any of those 10-day stores, which he did.
This friend of mine wanted to find a store that would sell the product he wanted while also having the fastest delivery service or, at least, faster than the average of 10 days, which is what he found in most stores.
The problem with that is that he spent more than 10 days on this "quest", meaning that if he had bought the watch as soon as he found it, he would have received it already. His insistent search for maximum efficiency in terms of delivery time actually caused him to wait 22 days instead of 10.
After this rather funny anecdote, I started thinking about my own buying habits and it didn't take long for me to realize that, in a different way, I was constantly a victim of the efficiency paradox, just like my friend.
To further expand the concept, let's consider another true story of the last time I bought a phone.
I don't really know a lot about the engineering behind mobile phones. but I still wanted to make sure I was getting the best possible device for the money I was willing to spend and, because of that, I read hundreds of online reviews, watched countless YouTube videos and learned about concepts I didn't even know existed.
This whole process took me weeks, if not months, but I finally found a model that sounded like the best of the best, the true champion of its price range. I bought that phone and started feeling great about it right after the purchase but here is the thing, that feeling didn't last.
The thing is, even though I'm a technology enthusiast, my interests are more focused on things such as robotics, space exploration, alternative energy and some other things along those lines. Things like computer models and mobile devices I simply don't care about.
Of course I understand the importance of having a device that is well built and uses quality parts but that's really just about how much I care. I don't really need to have the best phone in the market or the fastest one because I barely use it.
The same goes for computers. I could care less if my video card can run the best games on the market because guess what, I don't even play them and probably never will! I need a solid computer that wont give up on me all of a sudden and can handle some web browsing and light video editing every now and then. That's about it.
It may sound silly but realizing and accepting that was really liberating.
There ARE things I care about and when it comes down to those you can bet that I will spend all the time it takes to make sure I'm getting the best I can afford (guitars and music gear are good examples) but, for everything else, from now on, I will only spend the time I need to find something that fits a few basic requirements and that will be it.
For example, next time I buy a phone, I will look for something that:
Will not break easily
Has decent battery life
Doesn't have any known critical security issues
"Oh, but look! This one has an additional camera!" Don't care.
"This one is waterproof!" Don't need it.
"This one is the same one used by James Bond in the last 007 movie!" Well, in that case... just kidding. Don't want it.
I applied the efficiency paradox to the context of buying something because it was the kind of situation that initially made me think about it, but it, in reality, it's valid for any aspect of our lives. Sometimes we spend too much time (or other resources) on things we don't care about. We could be easily setting for "good enough" and saving those resources for things that are actually important to us.
In conclusion, the efficiency paradox can manifest itself in different ways but, at its core, it happens when our search for efficiency results in an inefficient process.
The main way to avoid it is to have a clear picture of what really matters to you. In what situations you won't take anything but the very best? Take some time to find out the answer to that question and settle for "good enough" on everything else so you can save your resources for important stuff.
