Do you think being efficient is always a good thing? Why or why not? (The official definition of the word efficiency)

Efficiency is using resources in such a way as to maximize the production of goods and services. The official definition of the word efficiency is "the state or quality of being efficient." Efficiency is generally measured (quantified) in terms of output (in some units) divided by input effort . So, it might be "percent" or "manufactured items per working hour per person" etc.

Anyone who follows rules or procedures instead of creating something different each time will become obsolete. This includes government workers, legal support, technicians, servers, administrative, data entry or machine operators of most kinds. It has already happened with bank tellers, pickers and packers, gas attendants, telephone operators, and some cashiers to name some examples. Robotics combined with the internet, standardization and customers doing everything themselves means even fewer jobs will exist in the future.

Is it possible that manufacturing may be transferred from the facility with the cheapest labour to the one with the highest amount of automation, since a machine is deemed to be cheaper than a person much of the time? This is already happening.

I think efficiency is a good thing. Maybe what you're doing is important, interesting, or useful; or maybe it isn't but it has to be done anyway.

In the first case you want to get as much return as you can on your investment of time and energy. In the second, you want to get on to other things as fast as you can, without any nagging loose ends.

And whatever you're doing, you'd probably like to be more relaxed, confident that whatever you're doing at the moment is just what you need to be doing—that gazing at your sleeping child in his or her crib at midnight, answering the e-mail in front of you, or spending a few informal minutes with the potential new client after the meeting is exactly what you ought to be doing, as you're doing it.