Waste Not

Mozi’s criticism of lavish funerals and court music was not that they were cruel. It was that they were expensive and did little for the people. Years of mourning, he argued, drained farms, slowed trade and left families poorer, while the dead were no better off.

His test is about cost and benefit for the many. A custom, a building or a festival should earn its place by what it adds. He praised simple burials, plain clothes and useful works such as walls, roads and stores of grain.

You need not agree about music or ritual. The habit is to ask of any costly practice, at work or at home: what does it buy, and who benefits? Keep what earns its cost, and trim what does not.

The holiday dinner

A small company spends a large sum each year on an elaborate holiday dinner that few employees enjoy. Dev, the new finance lead, asks what it buys.

He surveys staff. Most would prefer a smaller party and a fund for training. The company cuts the dinner by half, starts a training fund, and keeps a short gathering that people do like.

Try this today List one recurring expense of time or money and write what good it does, and for whom.