Exhausted by Optimisation Culture, I Found Solace in the Past 2026

Exhausted by optimisation culture, I find myself seeking solace in the past. As Sibelius's swans soar skywards, so do my spirits, offering a welcome escape from the relentless pressure to improve every aspect of life.

The Optimisation Arms Race: A Modern Malaise

We are living through a progress arms race where everything is posed as perfectable. The AI industry leads the charge, promising that their plagiarism robots can help us blast through life more efficiently. But the myth of endlessly optimisable production has infiltrated every part of our lives. Now, you can listen to podcasts on double speed for ultimate uptake, max out your sleep for ultimate restoration, biohack your mind for ultimate clarity, and relax more intensely than your peers.

In such a landscape, where nothing is ever good enough, the past only appears more distant. We used to marvel at how people lived a hundred years ago; now we're told even life before AI should be viewed as a rudimentary stone age, filled with cavemen who submitted to the barbaric indignity of writing their own emails.

Finding Solace in Sibelius and the Past

Call me a luddite, but this endless pursuit of progress for progress's sake has pushed me the opposite way. Exhausted by art that promises to explain how we live right now, marketed with buzzwords and posed as the diagnosis to problems I have become too fatigued to even care about, I find myself retreating further and further backwards into the annals of history.

Take Sibelius's swans. In his Fifth Symphony, the composer captured the majestic flight of swans, a moment of sublime beauty that transcends time. As the swans soar skywards, so do my spirits, lifted by a piece of music that wasn't designed to optimise my productivity or enhance my cognitive performance. It simply exists, a testament to human creativity and emotion.

The Cost of Constant Optimisation

The constant drive to optimise has real costs. It breeds anxiety, burnout, and a sense of never being enough. We are told to biohack our minds, max out our sleep, and relax more intensely, but these demands only add to our mental load. Instead of living, we are constantly managing, tweaking, and improving.

This is why the past beckons. It offers a slower pace, a time when life wasn't measured in productivity metrics. The art and music of the past weren't created to be optimised; they were created to be experienced, felt, and enjoyed.

Embracing the Unoptimised Life

So, I retreat. I listen to Sibelius and let the swans carry me away. I read old books, not for self-improvement, but for pleasure. I take walks without tracking my steps. In these moments, I find a peace that the optimisation culture can never provide.

This isn't about rejecting progress entirely. It's about recognising that not everything needs to be improved. Some things are perfect as they are, and the past holds treasures that don't need upgrading.

Comparison: Optimised vs. Unoptimised Living

Key Takeaways

• Optimisation culture permeates all aspects of life, leading to burnout.
• The past offers a refuge from the relentless pressure to improve.
• Sibelius's music exemplifies the beauty of unoptimised art.
• Embracing unoptimised living can restore peace and enjoyment.

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