COMMENTARY: The beauty of non-efficient messiness

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Les Kaye is abbot of Kannon Do, a Zen Buddhist meditation center in Mountain View, Calif., and author of”Zen At Work: A Zen Teacher’s 30-Year Journey in Corporate America (Crown).) UNDATED _ Captivated by the problem-solving power of science, I entered the working world as a design engineer. From my […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Les Kaye is abbot of Kannon Do, a Zen Buddhist meditation center in Mountain View, Calif., and author of”Zen At Work: A Zen Teacher’s 30-Year Journey in Corporate America (Crown).)

UNDATED _ Captivated by the problem-solving power of science, I entered the working world as a design engineer. From my student days, I had became gradually addicted to the mathematical process called”optimization.” What an exciting idea: to believe that analytical methods can determine the perfect decision, or the best way to behave, in a complex relationship. Here, I thought, was the ideal technique to eliminate uncertainty, solve problems cleanly, and quietly tuck them away.


It took me several years to break the spell and to recognize that optimization may work well in theory but not always in real life. Gradually I understood I was obsessed with the search for perfect solutions and too concerned with the micro-details of ordinary events. I was constantly on the lookout for loose ends to clean up: Optimization does not abide non-efficient messiness.

But human beings are too restless to sit still for static, sterile equations about life. We are complex creatures who create complicated, ever-changing situations with no”right answer.” And I have learned that messiness can be OK. It’s often necessary and sometimes useful. We get in trouble by insisting on using analytical, systematic methods _ mental as well as mathematical _ to search for perfect solutions to problems in a world where cause and effect follow each other relentlessly.

Optimization as a discipline works for some aspects of life: Isn’t it reassuring to know that computers can create an optimum formula for the structural steel and concrete that supports our homes and workplaces?

But trying to optimize people can be risky.

Think of trying to optimize the lives of children, attempting to make each of their activities a perfect event, with no time wasted and having the highest payback per unit of effort. Letting kids daydream or explore without supervision is often best for them in the long run. Non-efficient messiness is one way kids optimize themselves.

The beauty of non-efficient messiness is that we find delight in all its twists and turns, its roarings and its quiet places. People need to find their own way in life, including the messy moments of mistakes and failures, and the moments when we are not doing anything special at all, but simply allowing life to flow through us.

These non-optimum opportunities permit us time to reflect on our mistakes, determine their causes, and understand how our failed actions impact our world. As we become wiser through our understanding of our relationships, we move incrementally closer to the optimum.

The best way to optimize is not by managing the details but by encouraging the spirit. Encouragement transforms complexity and uncertainty into creativity and the discovery of life.


We are now beginning to learn that the best way to oversee our lives and relationships is not too different from how to be a good parent. It is not so much about being firm with our children and controlling them, it is our broader-based encouragement of them as creative, sensitive beings that moves them towards optimization.

Trying to optimize life at the level of specifics reflects fear and mistrust. Our encouragement of one another, on the other hand, and our acceptance of some messiness, demonstrates our open-ended trust and love.

AMB END KAYE

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