I prefer “rare” to “well-done” — in steak, and in life.

Algorithms tend to optimize us toward well-being as “well-done”: predictable, consistent, uniformly cooked. Safe, measurable, repeatable.

But human experience is closer to “rare”: uneven, risky, asymmetric, and still alive. The parts that matter most are often the ones that don’t fit cleanly into metrics.

If everything becomes optimized, nothing remains interesting. And more importantly, we risk replacing well-being with the monitoring of well-being.

When a life is constantly optimized, scored, nudged, and corrected, it gradually stops being a life that is actually experienced.