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A former Snap executive left tech to teach computer science part-time at Cal Poly, expecting it to solve her identity crisis and provide meaningful collegial connections. Instead, she discovered that the work itself—building classes, helping students, showing up consistently—matters more than the status or leverage it provides.
- Teaching as an adjunct failed to deliver the social and intellectual community she expected, but she found unexpected satisfaction in the craft of teaching itself—designing assignments, creating exams, and watching students improve.
- Her previous career success in tech had conditioned her to prioritize leverage and ROI, but she now values "inefficient" activities like coaching her son's soccer team, lingering at school pickup, and maintaining relationships that have no measurable return.
- Small, sustained human connections—handwritten notes from former students, becoming known in her community through repeated presence—have become more meaningful than the professional status she initially sought.
Ian Bogost argues that our obsession with optimizing every aspect of life—from fitness to vacations—has stolen our ability to be present. He proposes that cultivating wonder in ordinary moments, rather than chasing extraordinary experiences, is the way to reclaim a life actually worth living.
- Optimization culture started in 19th-century industry but has leaked into personal life, turning even leisure into metrics to maximize (calories, credit-card points, reading streaks), which destroys the ability to experience the present moment.
- Wonder doesn't require rare experiences or travel—people report finding it in mundane things like watching ants, old appliances, or the mechanics of a toilet, once they stop treating the world as equipment to use.
- The shift from optimizing work so we could live freely to optimizing life itself means we've stopped asking what activities are *for* and only ask how to do them faster, which depletes meaning.
The article presents a brief and affirmative statement, suggesting a strong belief or opinion about a certain topic. Its simplicity leaves room for interpretation regarding what the truth pertains to.
- The entire article consists of two words: "it's true"
- There is no actual content beyond this phrase—no context about what is true or why