Many of my friends know I love coffee, and many of them know that I use a manual coffee grinder. They know its quality. It is also enjoyable; I like the feeling, the sound, and of course, the aroma. Many people have been impressed, and no one has complained about it, until today.
Today someone told me to use an electric coffee “grinder” because it is “efficient”. But she missed two important points. First of all, what she calls is electric coffee “grinder” is actually coffee chopper. Grinding and chopping are physically different. Second of all, she does not understand the meaning of “efficiency”. What she means by “efficient” only means quick, and she dose not care about quality. While efficiency can be defined as the quality of the outcome divided the time and/or effort to produce the outcome, she only cares about the speed. The quality of outcome by an electric coffee chopper is poor, and using it is not enjoyable at all. I was so surprised to see a person who does not understand it.
Although she is an extreme example, many other people misunderstand the meaning of efficiency; they do not distinguish the difference between efficiency and speed. Pursuing speed without considering efficiency is like designing a mechanical component without tolerance. It is like people; life without having tolerance is miserable.