The washing machine, what an invention. I was hand washing my favorite shirt earlier because the machine could not remove some dirt on it. This got me thinking. What if I washed all of my clothes manually like the good ol’ days? I probably would spend 2 to 3 hours washing and hanging them. By the time I finish, I probably need to rest for an hour or two. There goes half a day of productivity.

Now let’s say the washing machine has not been invented. This would probably mean billions of people around the world would have to spend hours washing their clothes. What’s the opportunity cost of the time spent washing clothes? There’s got to be one Einstein out of the billion who couldn’t create groundbreaking tech because he is too busy washing his shirts in the river. Oh well.

What if social media did not exist? What is the opportunity cost? There’s got to be another Elon Musk who could take our species to a new planet that he just found. Instead, the dude is busy dancing for a TikTok video.

Why the hell would I compare two different technologies: washing machine vs. social media? I have no idea. I am just talking shit.

For the meantime, let me use the time saved doing my laundry using the washing machine and post a photo of my breakfast on Instagram. Time well spent. 

“We wanted flying cars. Instead we got 140 characters.”

— Peter Thiel, 2013