I was asked this question at my first job interview.1 Back then, I wanted to have Hermione’s Time-Turner to study and do multiple things at the same time, because it reflected my own values of appreciating the finiteness of time. When people say time is money, I don’t think the point is to create equivalency. It’s to say that time is the ultimate and most precious currency in our lives.
These days, I don’t think I want any new superpowers overnight. Acquiring new skills is about the journey as much as it’s about enjoying the fruits (or punishments2) of the labor. As we master new things, we realize it takes an unproportionate amount of time to develop them.3 If we truly value the time in our lives, then maybe we should start to celebrate the countless hours it took to hone our abilities, rather than to only glorify the consequences.
Notes #
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This was a group interview for a summer instructor position at UofT’s Jr DEEP summer camp. This was probably one of the best jobs I have ever had. ↩︎
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I recently learned about the fitting Russian proverb: “Making initiatives is a punishable offense”. ↩︎
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Even popularized by Malcolm Gladwell’s 10000 hour rule. ↩︎