On slow growth

It is not always necessarily to be the faster, the better. Slow doesn't define us as a failure.

I read something very interesting today, actually there were two articles and somehow I can find them interconnected together with each other. The first one was something about growth and it's from the blog of Manuel Moreale, he had wrote something like growth is a mind cancer. Basically he thinks unlimited growth is not healthy in the long run. He took Apple for example and as quoted, “I'm sad because the pursuit of endless growth is such a mind cancer it consumes and distracts everyone” and he also said “Apple makes amazing product but they can't stop. They are a public company, if they're not growing enough it means they're failing”. He also mentioned it is not just the fault of Apple, it's not about just one particular company, it's the fault of the whole society. He wrote “we celebrate when Apple became the first trillion dollar company but we don't celebrate when someone said ‘you know what I think I had enough’.”

Think about this, we've been told and educated that we had to keep growing, because that's the way how we learn, that's how we how we improve ourselves, becoming a better person. However, maybe the society has overemphasised on the action of growing and even make it toxic productive that tend to think - if you're not growing if you're not learning, if you're not improving yourself every day then you are failing the purpose the society put on you as a hopeful person.

The truth is you don’t have to grow constantly to prove you are not a loser. That shouldn’t be how we define failure.

Interestingly, on the other hand, we are in the world that encourages us to get everything moving faster and we consume information in an astonishing rate compared to people consuming information decades ago, or maybe thousands years ago. This is kind of relating to another article I read today. In summary, Asia is a major source for e-waste (electronic waste) and accounting for nearly half of the global electronic waste generated in 2022. The news also gave a few data from the past decades. In 2010 there were only 34 million tons of electronic waste that were generating globally, after 12 years, in 2022 there were around 62 million tons of electronic waste generating globally, which is equivalent to 7.8 kg per person on the planet. When it comes to the breakdown of those electronic waste, out of the 62 million tons, 30 million tons were actually generated by Asia, 60000 tons of electrical waste electronic waste was produced by Singapore. Among these waste, 20 million tons of e-waste comprised small consumer goods including e-cigarettes, video cameras, micro-ovens and toys. Only 22.3% of the electronic waste was recycled in an environmentally sound manner. Based on the projection by 2030, which is six years from now, there will be in total 82 million tons of electronic waste generation.

This is a sad but shocking finding. If we actually relating these two topics together: we are encouraged, stimulated and hinted to move faster, change your phone faster, buy new phone every year or even less than a year; though back to a decade ago, Apple products were acronyms for things that are quality made and durable, timeless, something can last for a decade (not anymore nowadays). On the other hand, because we are in such a fast paced society led by consumerism, buying more resulting in generating more unnecessary e-waste and therefore we have this waste issue: most of them are not being properly recycled, environment is in danger.

Many old phones still function well, just that they're getting the latest features, but why do we always need new features? There is definitely something wrong with the society. Maybe we should start thinking about the quality of physical possession, even mental possession. Intentionally not going fast but slowing things down, giving more time to think than just act. Again, slowing down doesn’t define us as stupidity or failure, on a he contrary most of the time it reveal how wise we actually are.