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# You don't hate lightbulbs enough
- URL: https://www.memorydoll.com/you-dont-hate-lightbulbs-enough/
- Published: 2026-08-25T13:30:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-25T13:31:09.000Z
- Description: A lukewarm take about productivity
- Author: Aubrie Johnson
- Tags: Performance, #performance, #productivity

“If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” I always answer that age-old icebreaker question the time: the ability to alter time.

Advances in technology have a habit of costing more than we realize in the moment. The lightbulb gave us more time to enjoy our hobbies, build new things, and spend time together, but it also gave us the ability to work late and enabled the federal government to mandate a standardized 40-hour workweek. It popularized the trend of [fitting human beings](https://www.memorydoll.com/why-memorydoll/) into the capabilities of technology and forward progress rather than progress working for humans.\[^ I write all this at 8:30 pm surrounded by artificial lighting, so take my frustration with a grain of salt\]

## The irony behind constant productivity

The main character of my novel in progress is a chronomancer. Unlike the rest of us, she is free to choose whether to fall in line with chronos time with everybody else, or to apply her own kairos time whenever she damn well pleases. As a result, she gets to be an expert at basically anything she wants — not because she devotes her overpowered ability to [constant study](https://www.memorydoll.com/are-you-not-entertained-by-ai-art/), but because she can sleep in, study, hang out with friends, or work as much as she wants with zero consequences.

There are two types of time: **chronos** time is the quantitative, sequential time we’re all made to frame out days around. Clock in at 9, clock out at 5\. Some of us get a second shift, at home or at another job. By the time we’re done, it’s time for bed so we can be ready for work the next day. **Kairos** time is qualitative. It’s monotropism, neurotypically known as the *flow state* where we’re so engrossed in our task that time feels like it’s standing still.

Only the lucky Americans today are pulling four-day workweeks before whisking themselves off to seasonal vacations. Many of us have two jobs, at least, with a side hustle and maybe elders to support, nudging our 9 to 5s into 7 am to 11 pms. Never mind the fact that ample research exists objectively proving employees are more productive when they’re rested and their basic needs are met.

My one-sided beef with the lightbulb has me sitting here (in my well-lit apartment) wishing we could curfew electricity for a day or two every year. Then maybe we could all feel, probably for the first time, what it’s like to retire at dusk, to sit in our living rooms and eat and think aloud with the people we love. Maybe we could remember what it feels like to be bored, left to sweep the dust off our own brains and [entertain ourselves](https://www.memorydoll.com/wicker-2026-whimsy-amatonormativity/) again.

**Links:**

- Tiny Experiments ([Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/116410/9780593715130?ref=memorydoll.com))
- Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice ([Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/116410/9781541607248?ref=memorydoll.com))
- Slow Productivity ([Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/116410/9780593544853?ref=memorydoll.com))
- We Need Your Art ([Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/116410/9780593833001?ref=memorydoll.com))