In a lower-middle-class neighbourhood in Singapore you see families on the street. A father with the dog, a mother steering two kids toward the playground.

In an upper-middle neighbourhood, the dogs and the children are still there. The parents aren’t. The walking is done by a helper, Filipino or Indonesian or Burmese, hired so the household can optimize, outsource, and create ‘more value’.

In a rich neighbourhood, the parents are back. Same dog, same playground.

Who walks the dog follows a U curve.

The people in the dip are optimizers. They think that a life can be audited, they take pride in ‘wins’ like paying $x per hour so they can earn $x+n per hour. They sort tasks by dollar value, keep the high-leverage ones, delegate the rest.

I can’t help but wonder what they’re losing that can’t be measured.