We are optimizing ourselves to death

A paradox: the more tools we use to optimize our lives, the more it seems that we are sacrificing them on the altar of efficiency. Trackers tell us that we went to sleep too late, but they don't record that we were out to dinner with friends we hadn't seen in years. The collective myth is that if we only optimize every habit, every hour, every heartbeat, we will finally be happy, productive, "the best version of ourselves." But what if the search for perfect performance is depriving us of exactly what we wanted: to feel alive? Let's think about Marta, a 36-year-old manager who has been monitoring her sleep, steps, calories, concentration, and even her minutes of "active relaxation" for a year. One day, after wrapping up yet another "perfectly balanced" day, she realizes she doesn't remember what she felt. Everything was optimized, nothing was really lived. The numbers are impressive: according to American research, the global market for wearables exceeded $100 billion in 2023. But it's hard to measure what really matters. A tracker can tell you that yesterday you only had 4 hours of deep sleep, but it doesn't take into account that you spent the night talking to your father after months of silence. Or that you danced until dawn, finally feeling light. Often, the obsession with performance stems from the fear of "wasting" time. But no algorithm can tell us if an imperfect evening was instead what we needed. There is a voice missing from this discussion: that of those who refuse to be just a sum of data. Not out of nostalgia for the past, but out of love for the present. Try asking yourself: do you want a perfect night's sleep, or a story to tell? The phrase to remember is this: optimizing everything doesn't make life better, it just makes it more measurable. If you've heard something of your own in these stories, you can use I'm In on Lara Notes — it's not a like, but a way of saying that this vision now belongs to you. And if tomorrow you tell someone that "my tracker doesn't know that yesterday I really lived," on Lara Notes you can mark that moment with Shared Offline: it's the sign that a real conversation mattered. This idea comes from the Financial Times and has saved you several minutes of reading.