I started teaching myself the Thai alphabet (technically an abugida but w/ev). It is a beautiful writing system, with many distinct and practical glyphs such as: "snake", "other snake", "snake with hat", "wiggly snake with crinkled hat," "less wiggly snake with slightly more crinkled hat," "bird," "bird with tumor", "bird with fatal tumor", "goiter bird," "bird-snake," "crinkly bird snake," and "bird snake with wheels."

(deep down i know this is basically my own ignorant-ass american fault and it's not like english is a paragon of efficiency and sense either-- there might be some element of self-satire here...)

@zebratron2084 I mean, if you're -looking- for a writing system that's the paragon of efficiency, Hangul is probably a good one to look at.