„Where’s My Rest Badge?“
If my watch can measure something as complex as heat acclimation, why can’t it offer a Recovery Mode? An obvious setting (not hidden under layers of menus) you can toggle on when you’re sick, when you’re rehabbing from injury, when you’re forcing some rest after a big event — or that you keep toggled on if, for whatever reason, your body needs longterm rest. It seems so obvious and yet somehow impossible, as if these brilliant computers on our wrists have no capacity to understand a “goal” as anything other than the constant push for more. […]
I want validation for an unscheduled week — or month — on the calendar. I want a smartwatch that does those little explosive emojis when it sees that my body was tired and I listened to it. I wish having enough time to sleep as much as you need wasn’t quietly interpreted as a sign that you clearly don’t have enough going on in your life (“must be nice!”) I want to live with challenges, not constantly vanquish them and heed the expectation to take on yet another challenge. I want to decide for myself what’s hard and worth pursuing, and when and if I do that hard thing, I want space to process and recover from it, too. I’m bad at that, but thinking hard about how to be better.
Our economy is addicted to growth. We know this; we bemoan this. But we, as individuals judging ourselves and others, are addicted to it too. Our technology isn’t broken, or stupid, or incapable. It’s just designed in a way that mirrors our incredibly limited understanding of what’s worth celebrating.
Amen.