The Hidden Cost Of Convenience

While flipping through TV channels in India recently, I landed on one of those online shopping networks. The hosts were raving about a miracle device — a belt you strap around your waist that “burns belly fat” and “gives you abs” the moment you press the power button. No sweat, no effort, just results.

I couldn’t help laughing. It felt absurd… yet uncomfortably familiar. Isn’t that what so much of modern work has become? We keep looking for belts that’ll do the hard work for us — templates that think, tools that decide, shortcuts that deliver.

Convenience has removed the need for emotional labour — the thought, care, and effort that make work real. It saves time, yes, but it quietly strips away engagement. We finish more, but we feel less connected to what we do.

The real danger of convenience isn’t inefficiency — it’s indifference.

We stop sweating over things that deserve our sweat.

There’s no shortcut to meaningful work.

And definitely no belt for better abs.