How "wasted time" builds human capital. #
Posted June 2, 2026 [ Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.
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Key points
- Hyper-optimization and constant speed mimic AI, making you easily replaceable.
- The brain needs to disengage to process stress, lower cortisol, and connect disparate ideas.
- Asking unexpected questions protects your unique human value over automated efficiency.
It’s June, which means the faculty's summer is upon us. This is our time to do the projects that we’ve postponed all year — things that have been piling up in our notebooks and the backs of our brains. Research papers will be submitted, plants will be planted, and things will be organized. This is when we really get to think, and for many of us, our thoughts turn to optimization of these precious weeks. How do we get the most out of summer? How do get the most fun, the most productivity, the most of everything out of it?
But this is probably a terrible way to think about this time. In fact, as the focus everywhere seems to be on optimization, we are going to try doing the opposite, especially in terms of how we work this summer.
We hear all the chatter about trying to be as efficient as possible, removing process friction, and checking all the boxes so that you can move to the next thing as fast as possible. We have a big problem with the all-important productivity metric. Actually, two problems.
Productivity Isn't Always Good #
First, if you are the kind of person who gets the tasks completed in a way that is both efficient and forward-thinking, you probably already know what your reward will be: more work. Friends, you suffer from the “curse of competence.” Because you are good at many things, you are seen as an invaluable generalist. Unfortunately, as a generalist, your chances of being promoted into a role that requires depth may be hindered.
The second problem has to do with the nature of efficiency. Most of the time, the most efficient workers set up routines they can reuse rather than starting from scratch every time. But as we get better by building these routines, we also make ourselves more replaceable. In our quest to beat the bots, we risk acting like them. Luckily, the key to avoiding this trap is already hardwired into our brains.
We have a bunch of different neural networks kicking around in our heads. An efficient Task-Positive Network (TPN) and an inefficient Default Mode Network (DMN), along with the Salience Network (SN), a switchboard that helps us decide where to focus our attention.
The TPN loves checking boxes. It’s algorithmic and activated when we are engaged in goal-oriented tasks and functions kind of like an AI. With the TPN, there is no wandering off on a tangent; there is only doing. But we need tangents. Tangents are fun! Tangents take us to places we don’t expect and sometimes that’s exactly where we need to end up.
We talked about the importance of the DMN before in our piece about the need to take your vacation days. This part of our brain is a bit more chill. It likes to daydream and to slowly piece ideas and concepts together. The DMN facilitates walks down memory lane and makes plans for the future.
The DMN is also responsible for helping us regulate our stress, lower our cortisol levels, and process our big feelings, like all of that end-of-semester affective empathy, so it is crucial to our overall well-being. To us, the DMN is where we really showcase our humanness. It’s where we engage in and create friction. Those sticky friction points are where we learn and grow.
Think about this in terms of meetings at work. A TPN meeting means no small talk, just facts, status updates, and transactions. A bot can do these things. A DPN meeting builds psychological safety by engaging in conversations that build familiarity and trust between colleagues. With that as a foundation, it’s easier to navigate tricky situations to keep a team on track.
Useful Inefficiency #
So, how do we utilize our inefficiency at work without getting fired? Measure success in terms of insights, not just speed. Here are some things you can try:
Turn off your notificationsand stop responding to everything immediately. Constant notifications hijack your switchboard and ensure that your brain is stuck in TPN mode. Additionally, instant responses send signals you might not be considering.Whyare you so fast to reply? Don’t you have other things to do? Immediate responses are bot-like because they aren’t nuanced or considered. Instead, take some time, craft a response when you are ready using your DMN. This shows that you are a thinker, not just a responder. - Schedule “unproductive” time. According to research, you need to
just space outevery once in a while.Rest isn’t idleness. You aren’t taking a break, you’re engaging in high-level synthesis! This is something smart people do! Also, if you’re always on, you’re literallycuttingyourself off from your own humanity. - Be noisy (not in a literal way — or in a literal way — up to you.). Shake things up and
ask the unexpected questions. AI converges on the typical so your ability to take things off track is valuable because it takes you and your team places you wouldn’t get to otherwise.
Please note: We are not suggesting you default to becoming the “Devil’s Advocate” in every conversation (ugh). Instead, ask why things are being done like they always have been and make suggestions for change. Toyota famously uses a "five whys" approach to getting to the source of problems in its manufacturing process. Not only does this help them to identify real problems (as opposed to symptoms), it keeps them from reacting too hastily when something goes sideways.
CareerEssential Reads We are getting to the point where the most efficient person may be the easiest to replace. So don’t be that person! It is absolutely okay to optimize certain tasks or use AI. We are merely suggesting that you slow down.
Our plans are for a non-optimized summer. We are going to be inefficient in fun ways, including long walks without headphones in, reading books that have nothing to do with work, and rambling conversations over long meals. We are being purposely inefficient for our own good. We shall see where our DPNs take us when we are actually relaxed.