The Simple Life

As much as I love Kauai, in no small part it also provides escape from some (but by no means all) of the daily annoyances of so-called modern life. Life is much simpler here for me now. You could say that it is artificially so in that I am traveling light, no job, solo, but it isn't hard to imagine converting my volunteer work to a modest real job sufficient to make my contribution to society.

This post by Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) about the routine indignities of a routine trip to the supermarket is an excellent example of what modern life has become. It's a rambling piece but I think worth reading through as the most important points are in the closing section.

Driving this trend is the supermarket efficiently maximizing profits from the customers which may or may not involve actually being a shopping experience. I very much concur with this rant on maximization by Jason Fried that maximization isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be.

You really can only maximize something that is precisely measurable: size, distance, time, or of course, money. Furthermore, these sort of things tend to be limited resources where more for me means less for everyone else. But the things in life that really matter aren't numerical and arguably attempts at maximizing are certain to fail.

Here on this visit that is more than a vacation I have enough time that I don't have to maximize. On vacation it's easy to think of all the places you want to see and things to do and cram them into the short time at your destination. Even as my time for this visit is drawing toward an end I think I have managed to move past that mentality and take each day and each experience as it comes, trusting in an abundance of time.

Near the ends of the road where I like to be here in Kauai, it's predominantly small local businesses. These places don't have the sophistication or scale to attempt these sort of shenanigans and it just isn't their style. (Foodland supermarket did recently institute loyalty cards with a healthy discount surcharge for not using them, but this is the exception to the rule.) The cashier might talk story with you, or the person selling poke might advise you on what kind because they made it and they know. When they are out of something (which isn't unusual) they will be happy to tell you where to get it instead. As a shopper, this is the kind of extra effort I appreciate, instead of the overt manipulations. I just hope they can survive in an economic system built on maximization.