Human innovation isn’t as impressive as it seems.

Humanity’s collective intelligence is an intellectual powerhouse – our ingenuity is endless, and nothing is out of reach. There is nothing we can’t do, thus rendering our inventions quite predictable.

Time alone stands as the sole roadblock impeding further advancement.

And with this sole obstacle in our crosshairs, we overzealously inject increased effort into our routines as a means to compress the timeline, exponentially inflating our advancement rate. We are perpetually innovating, improving, and growing – a path and pace strongly reinforced and encouraged by the systems that surround us.

Instead of balancing time and effort, we supercharge effort to reduce time.

What’s the rush, though?

One plausible explanation – humanity’s undeniable, intrinsic desire to be first. Just watch kids at day care rush to be first in line when it’s time to go back into the classroom, pushing and shoving to claim that top spot. We carry this behavior right into adulthood –

Beat the competition.

Get there first.

Show your opponents no mercy.

The confounding part is that everything ‘discoverable’ will always be out there, just waiting to be found. We’re smart enough. We’ll get to it all eventually. But on an individual level –

We are impatient. We want it now.

We are paranoid. If we don’t do it, someone else will before we can.

We are conceited. No one else could possibly do what we alone can do, so better get to it before we are gone and the world is deprived of our individual greatness.

We push ourselves to the limit – to near robotic-level productivity – convinced that with our extra effort we can solve the world’s problems “with our own bare hands.” That’s another way of saying we can do it all ourselves.

But we can’t.

We shouldn’t.

And that’s okay.

If we are in such a rush to discover all the things on our own – to singlehandedly solve every global problem – we are not champions of our species, endowed with incredible powers that will save us all.

We are impatient.

We are paranoid.

We are conceited.

These messianic thoughts of ourselves that we entertain – that we’ve been unleashed on this world by the universe for the betterment of the human race – are laughable. Toss that grandiose narcissism aside. Escape that individual ego-bubble, join the rest of us in reality, slow down, and contribute collaboratively. We’re a global community. Save some ‘discovery’ for the rest of humanity.

And not just for the present population.

Time is not so much a roadblock as it is another resource for our species to utilize as we grow our collective intellect.

There will be others after us to carry the baton – in theory, anyway.

Notwithstanding a catastrophic human self-extinction brought on by our current state of affairs, we should all throttle back and rest easy knowing future generations will pick up where we left off.