The Best →
Dustin Curtis:
If you’re an unreasonable person, trust me: the time it takes to find the best of something is completely worth it.
This is why I research and review everyday objects like light bulbs: I have no patience for poorly working, poorly designed, or low-quality products.
Dustin suggests that the goal of caring about this stuff is achieving trust in your tools to work. For me, that’s part of it, but I also consciously notice and ruthlessly eliminate tiny frustrations. As Joel wrote circa 1900:
So that’s what days were like. A bunch of tiny frustrations, and a bunch of tiny successes. But they added up. Even something which seems like a tiny, inconsequential frustration affects your mood. Your emotions don’t seem to care about the magnitude of the event, only the quality.
And I started to learn that the days when I was happiest were the days with lots of small successes and few small frustrations.
It really does make a difference.