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Re:Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better by ghaff on Friday August 21, 2020 @01:37PM (#24237064)
The two are certainly related but it feels like optimization is a bit different. Maybe the efficiency equivalent for personal finance would be an example like keeping your bank balance at a minimum and immediately transferring any spare cash to paying down a mortgage or otherwise into a fairly illiquid investment because thet's where the best returns are. But now if you have an unexpected expense you have to scramble to come up with funds.
Re:Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better by neogodless on Friday August 21, 2020 @01:42PM (#24237120)
Ah yes, I think that makes it more clear.

In this case, efficiency might be automating bill payments, but then you don't catch price changes, and depending on your other systems in place, you might miss overdrawing your account.

Re:Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better by ghaff on Friday August 21, 2020 @01:54PM (#24237224)
The colloquial words may not be the best. It seems like it's a distinction between optimizing things for which there is essentially no meaningful downside except maybe a bit of thought and time. Versus setting things up so that they're the most efficient system in the current environment but may not handle unexpected events well and therefore might not be the best choice.