"Productivity numbers", much like GDP, are mostly worthless because they don't measure what you are producing. If you pay one person to dig a ditch and another

"Productivity numbers", much like GDP, are mostly worthless because they don't measure what you are producing. If you pay one person to dig a ditch and another person to fill it in, the productivity numbers will be higher than if no ditch was dug, but have you really produced anything? The metrics we use don't just measure what we are calling "productivity" and "economic growth" but also drive and influence our collective behavior. When these metrics are flawed our behavior in pursuit of changing these metrics also becomes flawed.