Optimal vs Maximal. People will use the first when they mean the second. Cranking any single knob (especially work) up to 100% at the expense of everything else is definitionally maximization. Hustle/grind culture is a soulless, maximal, blight. Dumb work practices like “996,” most of the performance-enhancing drivel that winds up in my LinkedIn feed, the overwhelming majority of “VC advice” I hear, and anything of “how to get more hours in the day” are all maximal approaches.
Your brain is electrified hamburger in a chemical soup. Neurotransmitter depletion and re-uptake rates are very real. Nothing available to us is going to change that. Calling back to my other post, you have 4 hours of focus in a day ASSUMING you’re eating well, exercising, and getting 8 hours of sleep. Even dyed-in-the-wool introverts need socializing time. Your best work is what happens when you’ve balanced all the messy “being a human” parts. Optimization is recognizing that balance and integrating it.
Is there a time and place for a maximal approach? Sure. Sometimes extraordinary situations call for it. Recognize the situation for the atypicality it is though. Telling people to sprint when you know it’s going to be marathon is magical thinking.
