Optimize for Joy Instead of Speed

Trains still hold a powerful grip on the American imagination.

Last week, that fascination was split into two starkly different realities. In Charlotte a homeless guy murdered a 23 year old Ukrainian refugee on a train which the President even commented on.

Meanwhile, Amtrak unveiled its NextGen Acela trains. The DC/Philly/Boston/NYC trains now boast 5G-enabled Wi-Fi and USB ports at every seat. They represent America's flagship attempt at high-speed rail, our answer to Europe's TGV and Japan's Shinkansen.

@natbco

AT LONG LAST Amtrak’s new NextGen Acela trains are here. I took a round-trip from DC to Philly to see what they’re like. They’re still wor... See more

Sadly, the trains don't actually go any faster. DC to New York is still almost three hours on the "fast" train, four hours on the regular one. The tracks are from 1925. There are delays all the time. Freight companies own everything. If we had actual bullet trains it would take an hour, but we don't.

It turns out that making trains faster in America is very, very difficult. They are very expensive and there are overlapping authorities on who owns the actual rail. By any practical metric (cost, speed, comfort) Commuter trains are a failure.

Yet somehow, we keep obsessing over trains.

The American Train Paradox

We remain perpetually fascinated by rail travel even though the vast majority of the country commutes by car. You most likely never take the train if you live in America, unless you live in one of these places.

It's not some partisan issue that is like so many other issues these days. Florida Republicans tout Brightline as a major infrastructure win while blue states struggle to build anything new.

@jeddeo1

Replying to @Walsh Did It Since people have been asking, I did not have time to go on Brightline this time in Miami. However, I have ridde... See more

California has been trying to build high-speed rail connecting LA to SF since Obama was senator, was about $30 billion then and it's now costing $128 billion, which is more than most countries' GDP. Even Trump has mocked California Governor Gavin Newsom for not delivering the train.

Nevada’s Brightline West is aiming to connect Southern California to Las Vegas, This 218-mile route faces enormous challenges. Will it get built? Perhaps.

None of this makes practical sense. America is fundamentally a driving nation built around the automobile. When we don't drive, we fly. Our cities sprawl across car-friendly suburbs. Outside the Boston-NYC-DC corridor, our population density resembles Montana's.

So why do we care about trains so much?

The Experience Economy of Transportation

The answer lies in something we often overlook: the human experience of travel itself.

Flying has become psychological torture. The TSA security theater, endless delays, cramped seats next to strangers who smell like fast food and desperation. Airports are purgatory with overpriced coffee. By the time you factor in driving to the airport, waiting in lines, and retrieving baggage, that "fast" flight often takes longer door-to-door than driving.

Driving isn't much better. Sure, the open road feels liberating, in car commercials. In reality, you're more likely sitting in traffic for hours, white knuckling through increasingly congested highways. This isn't enjoyable transportation.

Trains offer something different, at least in theory. When done well, rail travel integrates seamlessly into urban life. You walk to the station, board without security theater, settle into a real seat with actual legroom, then disembark in the heart of your destination city. No parking hassles, no baggage claim, no cramped middle seats. You can read, work, or simply watch the landscape roll by.

@theresaelaineee

I love the calm feeling of train rides — they can be so comforting! 🚋💭🧸🌟🧚🏻 #aesthetic #cozy #calm #romanticizeyourlife #fördig #fordeg #sl... See more

There's something inherently civilized about it,which explains why we keep dreaming of trains.

What We Optimize, We Don't Enjoy

The obsession with trains reveals a deeper philosophical truth: the things we optimize for maximum efficiency can become utterly joyless experiences.

Cars and Planes are both optimized for speed. Perhaps thats the problem. we're drawn to trains not despite their inefficiency, but because of what that inefficiency preserves, a more humane experience of travel.

This isn't a new idea, it's a deeply lindy one. We are drawn to quality of experience. Even studies on rats show they prefer a longer, more enjoyable path to food over a shorter, barren one. We are no different

Walking is enjoyable. Cycling can be delightful. Both are inefficient forms of transportation, yet people choose them when they can because the journey itself has value. We've optimized cars for speed and planes for throughput, but in doing so, we've drained them of pleasure.

Trains occupy a unique middle ground. They're faster than cars, more comfortable than planes, and more human-scaled than either. They don't require the rigid separation from urban life that airports demand, nor the individual isolation that cars impose.

Perhaps this explains America's persistent train romanticism. In a culture that has thoroughly embraced automotive transportation, trains represent a road not taken, a vision of movement that prioritizes experience alongside efficiency.

Optimize for Joy

Advertising executive turned behavioral economist Rory Sutherland has spent years arguing that when you can't make something faster, you should make it more enjoyable.

@chriswillx

Should High Speed 2 Be Abandoned? Hidden Psychology Of The World’s Best Advertising - Rory Sutherland (4K)

He points out that Uber didn't revolutionize transportation, taxis were already doing essentially the same job. Uber's genius was the map showing exactly where your driver is, eliminating the anxiety of not knowing when your ride would arrive. The psychological improvement was as valuable as any engineering fix.

@financian_

Rory Sutherland, a prominent figure in advertising and behavioral economics, has conducted studies examining the psychological impact of U... See more

This philosophy of prioritizing experience over raw speed isn't limited to trains.

Imagine if Tesla's greatest innovation for families isn’t faster acceleration, but embracing slow travel with self-driving sleeper RVs. Picture a 6 passenger electric vehicle designed like a rolling hotel, with actual beds, a kitchen, and space to live rather than just travel. A Tesla sleeper RV would embody the same philosophy that makes trains appealing, prioritizing experience alongside efficiency, comfort over pure speed.

Instead of enduring eight-hour road trip marathons in cramped cars, families could transform the journey itself into part of the vacation.

America Can’t Out Build China

This is an important point, because I just don’t think we’re going to outcompete China on engineering miracles.

China just builds. They lay down 25,000 miles of high-speed rail in two decades while California debates a single route. Their trains glide at 217 mph while our Acela wheezes along at 150 on a good day, over century-old tracks. They throw up skyscrapers in weeks, build hospitals in ten days, entire cities in five years. Beijing opened 783 miles of metro in two decades; New York built 3.5 miles for $4.5 billion per mile. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge spans 34 miles with underwater tunnels that would take us decades to plan.

They pour more concrete in three years than America did in the entire 20th century, manufacture 57% of the world's steel and graduate four times as many engineers as we do.

China caps finance salaries to redirect their brightest minds toward manufacturing and engineering instead of Wall Street-style speculation. While America's top talent chases finance bonuses, China funnels theirs into building things.

All its cities are wrapped in LED walls covering whole buildings. They love screens. Even more than us.

@unknown_member015

📍 Shanghai China #shanghai #city #cyberpunk #night #china #douyin #fyp

Honestly, America isn't the country that built the Interstate Highway System anymore. We're not the nation that cleared neighborhoods for urban renewal or erected the Hoover Dam in five years. Our construction workers earn $35 an hour versus China's $5. Every project drowns in environmental reviews, property litigation, and NIMBY lawsuits that stretch for decades. A single homeowner can derail a billion-dollar infrastructure project through the courts.

Competing with China on scale or speed is a losing game. That’s not who we are anymore.

Where America still shines is in imagination. Make the journey meaningful, not just fast. Invent things that make daily life richer, stranger, more joyful.

America’s edge has always been its ability to turn function into culture, to make the necessary delightful. We don’t have to build the fastest trains in the world to matter, we only have to remember that the ride itself can be the destination.