So what if we do? I am strongly in favor of thorough and regular contemplation of ones life, but it leads to really weird things, if it's led by our lackluster comprehension of time and numbers. A number is not bad, just because it clashes with our intuition. Just because something feels bad when it is presented in a certain way, does not mean it is bad.
For example, learning that x tons of food are wasted in any given context provides me with 0 useable information in relation to my life. What would be the alternative? I have assume nobody is wasting food to waste food if they could do the same thing without wasting food. It's a byproduct of trying to optimize a processes. What are these processes, what are they being optimized for? What can be done to improve them and what would it cost?
If I feel something is a shockingly big or small number – and that's what these kinds of number games always seem to aim at, for whatever reason –, I am usually just being set up to be confused and unhappy about how reality outside of my own speck of experience works.
For example, learning that x tons of food are wasted in any given context provides me with 0 useable information in relation to my life. What would be the alternative? I have assume nobody is wasting food to waste food if they could do the same thing without wasting food. It's a byproduct of trying to optimize a processes. What are these processes, what are they being optimized for? What can be done to improve them and what would it cost?
If I feel something is a shockingly big or small number – and that's what these kinds of number games always seem to aim at, for whatever reason –, I am usually just being set up to be confused and unhappy about how reality outside of my own speck of experience works.