I can put a YouTube video on 2x speed and get through it sooner. If I only need an answer, I can skip around or ask AI to summarize it. Exercise doesn’t work like that. If I’m going out for a run, I have to be there for the run.
That’s something I’ve been appreciating more lately. There are plenty of things I want to make faster, but I’m finding myself drawn to activities where I can’t skip the time it takes to do them.
Getting used to everything being faster
I spend a lot of time with technology, and much of what I enjoy about it is figuring out how to make things easier. In my last post, I wrote about using Hermes Agent to administer my homelab. I can ask it to investigate an issue or work on a project while I do something else. Some of the work that used to need my attention now happens without me sitting in front of a laptop.
I’m excited about that. I also think it’s worth paying attention to where that expectation carries over.
Once you have ways to get through things faster, it’s easy to start expecting everything to work that way. A video has a playback-speed setting. A long article can become a summary. If something takes a while, there’s probably a tool or a shortcut that will help.
Exercise is a pretty obvious exception, and I like that about it.
You still have to do the run
You can read about running, research a training plan, and find better ways to train. None of that does the running for you. At some point, you have to go outside or get on the treadmill and spend the time doing it.
You can run faster, obviously. I’m not saying every workout needs to take the same amount of time, or that there aren’t more effective ways to exercise. But running faster means you’re doing more of the work yourself. You haven’t changed the playback speed and watched the same thing happen sooner.
That’s the part I keep coming back to. You have to be present for the effort. Nobody else can do it on your behalf, and you can’t get the experience by reading a summary afterward.
When so much of what I do involves a screen, I appreciate having something that requires me to physically participate for the time it takes. Even if I’m listening to something while I exercise, I still have to keep moving. The audio can finish early. The run can’t finish itself.
Cooking has some of the same appeal
I’ve found myself gravitating toward cooking for a similar reason. There are shortcuts, and I’ll happily use them. But knowing the recipe isn’t the same as making dinner.
You have to prepare the food and pay attention to what’s happening in the pan. Turning up the heat doesn’t automatically give you the same result in less time. Sometimes you just have to let something cook.
I like that there’s something to do beyond taking in more information. I can watch someone make a meal, but if I want to eat it, I still have to make it myself. The video is useful because it helps me do the thing, rather than becoming a substitute for doing it.
What am I saving the time for?
The brainrot part of this, for me, is the endless availability of something else to watch. There’s always another clip or another recommendation. Getting through one faster doesn’t mean I’m done. It can just mean I start the next one sooner.
I don’t want every bit of time I save to go straight back into that.
I’m still going to automate things. I like being able to hand off repetitive work, and I don’t miss having to troubleshoot every homelab issue myself. But I want some of that saved time to go toward things I have to actually be there for.
Running and cooking are two of those things for me. I don’t need to find a way to get them over with faster. I want to spend the time doing them.