Life in the Eudaimonia Machine

The idea of setting aside time to think, do meaningful work, and generally get away from the BS of it all is not new. Thoreau’s Walden is probably the most famous example, but I was more directly inspired by Cal Newport’s Deep Work. In it, Newport talks about setting aside chunks of time, void of distractions including busy work, to do the real work (whatever that may be). Its message is a mixture of old world contemplation a la Plato or Darwin and more recent digital minimalism crying out against the constant pillaging of our attention by social media, instant communication via messaging apps, and hours of TV and video game binging.

One of the ideas presented (not invented) by Newport is the real and simultaneously conceptual construct of the Eudaimonia Machine (more on it). It’s not a mechanical machine like a car engine, but a machine in the sense that inputs are made and processes done in a certain order and way for a particular outcome.

The Eudaimonia Machine is a building with a series of rooms; for example, the gallery for inspiration, the salon for collaboration, the library for investigation, the office space for superficial work, and the chamber for deep work. The building is shaped like a longhouse. There is only one entrance and no hallway or corridor. The first room connects to the second room and the second to the third, and so on. Each room has a specific purpose and function and these dictate how the room is used.

The beauty of the Eudaimonia Machine is that it is both useful in the concrete and the abstract. There is no need to actually build a one-way longhouse with dedicated rooms but the mental construct provided can be useful in organizing our work and leisure lives.

So, I haven’t hired an architect and a contractor to build me a strangely laid out house, but my day is broken into virtual EM rooms. My morning routine of meditating while making coffee or walking, listening to an audio book, and noodling into a journal is a sort of gallery for inspiration, chatting with my friend about our ideas and ongoing projects is the virtual salon, the internet and books, etc. is the library for info and research, checking email and sorting through paper is the office space, and turning off all distractions and setting up a Pomodoro timer and getting to it is the chamber for deep work.

Mixed into this is exercise, food, hobbies, reading for pleasure, even some afternoon snoozing. It would be interesting to build a physical EM longhouse in the backyard and commute to it every day, coming out the other end at the end of the day. I’m sure there are interesting variants and useful changes to be made. The virtual EM allows for changes such as a first-thing-in-the-morning deep/creative work session for 30 minutes to an hour followed by health and basic needs stuff like coffee, break, a walk/exercise, and a shower. Then one could come back to the EM and get some of that annoying busy work out of the way before sucking up some more inspiration, doing some research, and then sitting down for a solid 3-hour deep work session.

Finally, to me the characteristic of the EM that is particularly attractive in the hyper-distracted modern life is that its no hall way, one way structure with single purpose rooms promotes single-tasking. Start here, do this, and move onto the next stage. A sort of old school side-scrolling video game.