The Idol of Efficiency
June 19, 2022
My Dad’s research revolves around farm animals and nutrition. Apparently a big part of that research is optimizing how well animals take in nutrients. If you’re going to feed an animal, you want the animal to get the most out of the feed. Feed is expensive, so you don’t want the nutrients you paid for to just pass right through the animal. The better the animal takes in the nutrients, the better the animal grows, the less time you have to feed the animal, the less feed you have to buy, the more profit you make on the animal. It’s a pretty simple equation, and makes intuitive sense.
In Civil Engineering, part of the difficulty is knowing when to use a given equation. There are often two or more equations that could be used to determine a specific force load on a wall. One may use simple algebra; the other more complex calculus. They both calculate the force load on the wall, so why not go with the simple one?
Because the simple one doesn’t actually reflect reality. It’s simplified. In some instances it may work, but once the situation gets complex, the equation has to get complex as well. Calculus is more difficult, but also more closely represents reality.
Thinking about feeding animals again, the simple equation “more efficient nutrient intake equals more profit” is oversimplified. There’s a reason animals are less than 100% efficient at taking in nutrients—it’s not just about the growth of the animal. By passing on some percent of the nutrients they intake, the animals give nutrients back to the land they are eating on. This enables the land to produce more grass, which the animals can eat, passing on some nutrients while they do so, and so on the cycle goes.
Looking at that less than efficient intake of nutrients as an inefficiency, a problem to be solved, ends up creating another problem down the road—getting nutrients back to the land. If we step back and appreciate the complexity and beauty of the system, and let things work the way they want to work in the first place, we may find that they work better without our foreign optimization efforts.
This is a somewhat technical way of talking about something we should praise God for—the marvelous complexity and wisdom of his creation! It’s also an invitation to examine our lives for the idol of efficiency. As creatures, we are connected to one another, reliant on one another in innumerable ways. When we try to optimize these interactions, I think there are often unintended, perhaps unseen, negative consequences. Optimizing a situation for my gain often comes at the expense of someone or something else. To put it another way, the prairie is a better place when the buffalo waste some of the nutrients they eat.
John Coffey
