Unoptimized Enjoyment
When good is better than the best.
I was sitting in a lounge at Toronto Pearson Airport gulping down as many free lattes as my nervous system could handle, neurotically scrolling a hiking app trying to find the best hikes in the Canadian Rockies.
It was early October and my dad and I were headed west for a road trip through the ragged mountains that straddled the border of Alberta and British Columbia. Naturally, I was fixated on optimizing our trip which meant capitalizing on the famous golden larch season.
Larches are a unique breed of tree called deciduous conifers that can grow as tall as 60 metres. While they look like your average evergreen in the summer, their needles turn a brilliant golden colour for a few days in autumn before dropping.
If I found the right hike, we could expect to crescendo a mountain pass to look down on a valley of golden larches speckling the mountainsides sloping down to an emerald glacier-fed lake.
I searched for the perfect hike, and I found it.
Golden larches. Snow capped mountain peaks. Emerald lakes. This hike had it all.
Except because of the popularity of the area, Parks Canada controlled access to it. The 11-kilometre road that led to the trailhead was only accessible on foot or by a shuttle that you had to pre-book months in advance. It was the optimal hike in every way imaginable, which is why everyone wanted to do it. In the end, it was too optimal to access.
Rather than continuing to torture myself trying to find the best hikes, I conceded.
We decided that we would wake up each morning and, over coffee, spontaneously find a hike that made sense for that day.
My philosophy shifted from seeing optimal as a popular picture-perfect hike to seeing optimal as a still-beautiful hike, but a less popular one that didn’t carry the hassle of crowded trailheads and impossible parking.
We chose unoptimized enjoyment.
We always want the best.
I’ve seen it countless times in my world travels and at home in Toronto. Everyone vying, shoving, and shouting to get the best for them and theirs, often at the expense of others.
But trying to get the best comes at the sacrifice of our peace. Because getting the best means competing with other people for it, and that means rushing and fighting to get our piece of the limited pie.
We’re also bad judges of what the best is.
Usually, we just follow others and compete for what everyone else is competing for because we assume it’s the best.
I remember walking by a famous sandwich shop in Florence that had a lineup down the street. My girlfriend and I laughed and got a sandwich at the zero-line place across the way. We sat outside in peace eating our suboptimal sandwiches while observing the buffoons spending half their day in a sandwich line.
Then we peacefully and happily carried on with our day.
Another moment of unoptimized enjoyment.
In a world where we’re all aiming for optimal, the best, there is something to be said for seeking good. Often, good is better than the best because it’s still good without the hassle and stress that comes with the best.
This applies to our vacation plans, but has useful applications to other important areas of our lives such as fitness and finances.
Say you find an exercise program that you enjoy, but your beefhead buddy keeps riffing on the imperfections of your workouts. You’re far better off sticking to what you enjoy and can consistently do rather than straying into the dark and deep waters of optimized perfection.
Or with your finances, it’s better to find the risk level you’re comfortable with and stick to that strategy over the long-term rather than listening to an advisor who promises the highest returns with uncertainty that would cause you psychological ruin.
The key skill here is critical independent thought.
Figure out what good means to you and don’t get swept up in the flock of sheep chasing unattainable optimization.
That’s what I call unoptimized enjoyment.
And it can still look pretty damn good…
With love,
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…let’s be 100…even a bad hike is a good hike…
Oh man, I’ve been living this realization all summer long, since I’ve been trying to climb a mountain every week. Twice I have gone to trails that were designated as the best something, and twice I’ve been horrified to find myself surrounded by people posing with their back to whatever sight they were seeking, taking selfies. Ah well, you live and your learn. A week ago we drove by the “best” trailhead, overloaded with cars, and continued on several more miles to a lesser known trail. We were the only car there, saw two other hiking parties the whole day. It was fabulous.