Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about the dangers and drawbacks of life hacking with Professor Joseph Regal.

You'll also learn about the evolutionary reason why you're Life Hacking with Professor Joseph Regal.

You'll also learn about the evolutionary reason

why your fingers get prune when they're wet.

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

Life Hacks aren't all fun and games,

as you will learn in this edition

of our Hacking Thursdays mini series.

We're joined by Joseph Regal, an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern

University and the author of the new book, Hacking Life,

Systematized Living, and its discontents.

Here's what he told us when I asked him,

what are the biggest drawbacks to life hacking?

What does optimization come at the cost of?

Well, I think there's two big things we might be sacrificing.

One is as a type of self-help that's very individualistic. I liken life hacking to Donnie and a set of

blinkers like we put on horses. So you put the blinkers on the race horses so they look afar and

they can see that finish line and they can race towards that finish line and beat all their competitors.

And in a world where we have pervasive distractions, right?

...