That's a Little too Convenient

How to become fluent in a new language

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! Recently I was talking to my wife about the biggest changes in our life since having a baby and what it really boiled down to is that a lot of things are less convenient than before. Rather, many of the things that were once convenient are now quite inconvenient. Then, we started thinking about what convenience really is. Turns out, convenience might be slowing you down.

The good

I think we can all agree that conveniences are nice. It is nice to be able to hop in the car and drive 10 miles to a restaurant to have food made for you in exchange for some paper. Being able to pick up the phone and call your parents is much better than having to write letters. When it’s hot out, nothing hits like a good AC; and let’s not forget being able to extract ice from a machine inside your freezer.

There are plenty of positives to appreciate with regards to convenience. In fact, the vast majority of the time there are almost no down sides to the daily conveniences. My point here isn’t necessarily to get you to stop indulging in all of them. Rather I want you to think carefully about how often you are seeking a short cut or a way to save time day to day.

Personally, I benefit immensely from the technology and systems that have made my life and the life of everyone in my generation easier than our great grandparents had it. We have more time now than humans have ever had before and that is one of the best parts about technology. However, sometimes more time is not actually a good thing.

The bad

Theoretically, if you had more time you would be able to accomplish all of the things you ever dreamed of accomplishing, right? Let’s say the world shut down for a couple of weeks, almost everyone was sequestered at home with near infinite time. Food delivery is at its peak and your only options are being inside your house or being outside in a park or in the woods.

In that totally made up hypothetical situation, would you learn that new language? Would you work towards mastering that new skill? Would you finally start that business? Or would you watch TV, Tiger King was wild, and wait patiently for the world to open back up while all your newly discovered time passes you by?

For better or worse, more time doesn’t always equate to more life. In having a child, yes we lost some convenience, but it forced us to be better. To be more adaptable, to plan better, to execute more efficiently. It is tough to be busy all the time, but, after having experienced both, it is infinitely preferrable to being idle all day long.

Idleness is not the biggest issue, though. Yes, that is a problem and if you truly ask yourself whether you were “relaxing” or wasting time, I think you know the answer. It’s the same answer I came up when asking myself. The bigger problem, is the consequence of extended periods of inactivity spurred by modern day conveniences. In short: a skill issue.

The ugly

Before we continue, I want to state clearly that being bored is not wasting time. Being bored is one of the greatest things you can do to inspire creativity and solve problems. For more on that, read this:

Now, the ugly of too much convenience. If we are being honest, it all started with smartphones. The ability to Google things made research much easier. It also made access to information next to free. In fact, Googling things became so common that looking things up became googling them. But how many of the things you have “googled” do you remember right now?

Personally, I can think of a few, but that probably totals out to 0.1% of all the things I have looked up in the past 10 years. Now that problem is getting even worse with AI and I don’t think it gets better before it gets worse. That said, there are far more technological advancements that have taken people’s skills as payment for their use.

Spellcheck has left at least one generation without the ability to reliably spell words.

GPS has created at least one generation that cannot navigate by reading a map.

Digital clocks have caused a growing number of people to lose their ability to tell time with hands. Let alone with a sun dial if it were ever necessary.

Cellphones have made letters all but obsolete; and losing letters has had a horrific effect on the general population’s ability to write.

TVs have made reading a novel pass time.

In the US, cars have stopped people from walking even short distances.

Calculators have made mental math seem laborious.

Frankly, the examples are endless. Each one adds layers to the ugly that is compounding consequences for taking conveniences without filling the time that was saved through the convenience. But filling that time is difficult. Even with the best intentions, many people are stuck with too many rather than not enough options. Analysis paralysis is real and it, too, is a consequence of convenience.

Conclusion

The ex CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, takes this concept to the extreme in his life and he credits his intentionally inconvenient life for helping him build companies. “Inconvenience necessitates problem solving” is as true today as it has always been. When everything is taken care of there is no need to innovate. It’s one of the reasons learning a new language feels like it takes forever now.

Looking up words is not a difficult task, taking notes no longer requires you to lift a finger, apps bring the learning to you anywhere, which means nowhere is your true learning space. I wouldn’t go as far as some people do to make everything inconvenient, but try to remove just 1 modern day convenience from your life for a month. I did it with my smartphone, that was pretty tough.

Personally, I would prefer if you chose to leave behind your notes app, your digital dictionaries, and maybe even your language learning app. Just focus on the real world for one month. It is difficult, especially because it is being necessarily self imposed. But you can do difficult things and be great. So go out and do some difficult things and become great. I am rooting for you.

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