Meaningful Returns

I sat in a dentist’s chair for well nigh an hour this afternoon, fearing that my jaw muscles were going to start cramping, and cursing whatever gene I got that makes my teeth highly sensitive to the cold water they insist on spraying directly on to my teeth every five minutes. Can you relate? Surely you can. It’s no secret that no one likes going to the dentist, which I guess explains why the dentists themselves are so rarely at work.

Just kidding, but seriously, why do we go to the dentist? Because we have one set of teeth, and those teeth require maintenance. I mean sure, you could completely ignore them, and they would rot out of your head eventually and you could get replacements, but most of us don’t really consider that option. So maintenance is what you do (or don’t do) with your teeth every day, and an inspection is what the dentist is for: periodic inspections and the prevention and remediation of major dental issues.

Maintenance is sort of boring. As this Freakonomics podcast brilliantly addresses, we like thinking about innovation and new stuff way more than we like to think of maintenance. But this is to our detriment, because maintenance is what makes innovation work.

To me, the most fascinating part of the podcast is when a woman named Ruth Schwartz Cowan, a PhD who studies the history of technology, discusses the fact that so many inventions that were supposed to free women up to enter the workforce actually created more work for them. The work became easier physically, but it took up much more time. Sure, the washing machine was easier than the washboard, but people started buying more clothes, and changing them every day, and women found (and find) themselves doing laundry constantly.

Does this sound familiar? Does it sound anything to you like what money can do to us? It’s supposed to make things easier, and it can, but only if we commit to thinking intentionally about its wide-reaching impact on our lives. Just as the little gadgets of innovation that are supposed to free up time for us get filled up with us using other little gadgets of innovation, having more money can sometimes feel like it does one job really well: make us feel the need for more money.

Let’s be people who recognize the value of maintenance. Let’s maintain our purpose, the foundation of what it means to be human. Let’s maintain our sense of contentment, the foundation of what it means to have enough. And let’s maintain our sense of gratefulness, the foundation of what it means to enjoy the world as it is. If we commit to this sort of maintenance, then new money will have a way of taking care of itself.