My day in traffic

You know, with all these great technological advancements we've made in the last 150 years or so, you'd think we would have a better way to get from point A to point B.

Look, I get it -- I live in Miami and will be forced to endure traffic here and there, but it took me over an hour to get to my class, and that was with me taking the "faster" route. I don't even want to speculate how long I would have been stuck had I ventured onto a highway.

The bigger -- more pressing -- problem than getting to point B late, is the hour, one of my scarce and precious 24, that I was blatantly robbed of and as a result -- will never see or experience again. Yes, that sounds a tad bit dramatic -- but it's a fact. I will never get that damn hour back. So at the end of the day, while I'm lying in bed reminiscing about my day's activities -- annoyingly, memories of the old Chevy Blazer that was driving at 15 miles an hour and the big-shot BMW from Carmax will be among memories of having a nice lunch with WM and my first day at my new internship.

How much of our time is completely wasted in the car driving to point B? Why do we endure these long drives anyway? What are we really working towards? What is really important in our lives? Work or quality of life?

One of my professors said something intelligent and thought-provoking, finally that clicked with me -- efficiency is anti-waste and we need to be efficient towards a goal, not just efficient.

Efficiency towards living -- that's my goal. I don't want profit or power maximization. I want to eliminate or at least minimize waste in my life -- including long driving times, watching Jersey Shore brain-drain TV shows (Note: I actually have never seen an episode of Jersey Shore, thank goodness), and any other activity that sucks up my time unapologetically.