September 17, 2007
View Comments | Post CommentThis Post Is Not A Waste Of Time
There's a certain phrase a lot of people use to describe a lot of things. When someone is unhappy with something they are doing, they call it this: a waste of time. But what does that mean? Is anything really a waste of time?
Aside from the normative usage of the phrase, I can't really get a handle on what it means for something to be "a waste of time." I know how people use the phrase, and I use it that way, too. I bet that, with a bit of searching, one could find a pithy quote from someone like Mark Twain, James Thurber, or Will Rogers, saying something like "Nothing is truly a waste of time unless Congress is in session." But when I really think about it, I just can't find any rational meaning behind the cliché.
I think we know what we mean when we talk about the "time" that gets wasted, but I don't think we have any clue what we mean by "waste." One can make a case for things that are involuntary being wastes of time--if one has a seizure, the duration of the fit might be time wasted, but only for you, not for those who stop to help you. But as applied to volitional activity, what does it mean for something to be a waste of time? Can you formulate any precise definition that makes sense? Give it a shot.
Posted at September 17, 2007 7:24 PM | Comments (4)
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For your next post in the series, I'd like to request your take on the annoying phrase "it is what it is"... Deep, huh?
Posted by: Shana at September 18, 2007 9:29 AM
Yeah, there are a ton of phrases like that. They acquire meaning by how they get used. And that's fine, really, I guess.
Posted by: Barzelay at September 20, 2007 4:43 AM
You sound like Bertrand Russell. Take that as you will.
Posted by: smed at September 25, 2007 2:03 PM
I think a more accurate phrase would be "This is a misappropriation of time." But that's not as easy to say. It's not that we are wasting time, but that we are often stuck doing one thing for very little benefit when we could be utilizing our time to do something that is more pressing. Like when you are stuck in a class listening to a lecture for an hour and a half that you're going to have to relearn anyway one day IF that information ever becomes useful, and you also have a project to be working on that is due soon. Instead of spending the time to sit in that class, and the time to travel back and forth from class to school, which can be a huge overhead cost, you could spend that time putting work into your project that is due. The lecture might not be a waste in and of itself, but the placement of when you have to go to the lecture related to when your project is due makes it an inappropriate time to be stuck in a lecture.
Posted by: Chris Santoro at October 26, 2007 11:05 AM
