There is a saying about taking things in moderation, that too much of anything can be bad. Sometimes I wish this weren't true.
Case in point: there are those who spend all their free time sleeping because they are so efficient at what they do that they can set apart large chunks of time to feed their subconscious. Then there are those who have the stamina to get by on very little sleep--thus setting apart large chunks of time to get more work done. My own efficiency level is precarious: I can't sleep whenever I want or I'll never get anything I needed done finished and I can't go on sleep-deprivation or I'll start hallucinating.
Work hard. Play hard.
That's the motto for some people--simply a variation on that slogan about playing hard because life is short. It's as if doing more meant you could overcome mediocrity and become superhuman.
I toyed briefly about the idea of changing physiology so that sleep wouldn't be needed or that the brain would be more efficient at thinking and organizing. But then I remembered that this particular path has been trod before. People are already different in their habits--people who need less sleep brag about their endurance, people who finish work early brag about their efficiency. The rest of us ordinary folk simply seethe with jealousy as this inherent superiority ladder emerges. Sociologically it might be devastating to evolve so quickly.
But the message seems clear, that what we basically need to do is more. And at times like these, it's as if doing more is physically impossible--that I am forever destined to remain the slide rule as others upgrade to faster processors.
