Why Optimization Culture Is Making You Miserable

This is a bonus episode of The Prof G Pod — beginning this week, we’re publishing an extra Conversations episode every Tuesday.

Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks and Meditations for Mortals, joins Scott Galloway to discuss why our obsession with optimizing every part of life is making us more anxious, not more fulfilled.

He explains why productivity systems and “maxxing” culture tend to backfire, how embracing our limits can be freeing rather than defeatist, and why AI won’t solve the deeper problem of trying to outrun our own finitude. Plus, how to tell the difference between healthy discipline and an optimization mindset that’s gone too far.

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