bring back the three martini lunch
the three martini lunch might be one of the most important institutions we've allowed modern society to kill.
not because anyone needs three martinis at noon. but because somewhere along the way we decided every hour of the day needed to be productive, measurable, optimized, and preferably followed by a calendar invite.
the three martini lunch represented something different. business conducted slowly. relationships built before transactions. an understanding that two hours spent around a table could accomplish more than twenty emails and six zoom calls ever could.
there was theatre to it. a proper restaurant. a white tablecloth. the first martini ordered without looking at the cocktail menu. another when the conversation became interesting. maybe a third when everyone collectively decided the afternoon was no longer particularly important.
we have become incredibly efficient at communicating and increasingly terrible at actually knowing one another.
perhaps society doesn't need more productivity hacks.
perhaps it needs lunch back.