Our cheerful, playful, and jovial temperament recoils at nuisance of scheduling commitments. We tend to assume that personal charm is enough to excuse those intrusive notifications, so common in remote work, that a task is running behind by a specific, precise number of minutes.
Same applies to meticulous reading of fine print. Attractive designs, crafted for effective marketing, often conceal crucial details accessible only to those who take the time to scrutinize whether an offer might be deceptive. Fine print serves as an antidote to excitement triggered by impulsive purchases.
Competition that our permissive organizations face against rest of the international community is fierce. It is no coincidence that many yearn for a return to past, to what has now become obsolete, justifying this desire by pointing to how dreadful contemporary culture has become. Every instance of inefficiency is now permanently recorded, negatively impacting one’s digital reputation.
We do not seem prepared to embrace a knowledge culture. Instead, we cling to traditions inherited from a time when we were happy—though we didn’t know it then. Cultures that resist adaptation are gradually undermined, as our capacity to contribute diminishes. Lazy humans will be surpassed by robots, but those robots will, in turn, be outdone by meticulous, punctual, and genuine creativity.
Where, then, is balance between analysis and synthesis? Our hectic postmodern era demands that we keep pace with thousands of followers and hundreds of simultaneous events. It remains unclear whether multitasking is actually beneficial, or simply exhausting. Recent academic trends often involve trimming curricula—a shift that fosters a rise in superficiality, if not outright mediocrity.
Today, delving deeply into any subject is often perceived as a nuisance, akin to spam or an arrogant display of superiority. In our current climate of absolute urgency, how could a professor possibly ask their busy students to read more than a single page? Reducing our attention span to a mere handful of seconds per task allows us to glance toward new tasks in an infinite succession.
We go to great lengths to disseminate increasingly bizarre content. Our happiness—measured as the sum of “likes”—now depends on decisions dictated by virtual-reality algorithms. The decline in stock and cryptocurrency markets reflects these psychological contradictions. We have been busy rushing to act on every passing whim.
Rigor and depth have been relegated to low priority. During bull markets, analysis is perceived as tedious and costly, while synthesis is seen as pleasant and lucrative. Market corrections, recessions, and depressions serve to reveal true value. Overvalued assets will be penalized, while those that possess genuine utility—previously overlooked—will begin to bear fruit. Great fortunes are forged in bear markets.
Rubén Rivero