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Tech’s Productivity Obsession Is Toxic

52 points by Balgair 4y ago

badpun 4y ago
> Workers have even internalized this desire to be productive. A survey of 1 million people by edtech company Headway in late 2022 found that productivity is most people’s number one priority in life. Some 65 percent of Britons, 63 percent of Americans, and 58 percent of Australians rank productivity above having a healthy body, more money, or being happy. Holy shit, this is scary. I hope that survey was somehow botched.
- maxlamb 4y ago
  If you live in one of these 3 countries it doesn’t seem surprising at all.
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    If you live in the UK you know for sure that 65% of people would not rank productivity on any list of priorities.
    - maxlamb 4y ago
      Even in London? It seemed that way when I worked in London for a few months. I realize it was a small sample size, but it seemed to be the case for 95% of my coworkers so I figured 65% on the whole is believable.
      - throwaway22032 4y ago
        Approximately 20-25% of working age UK adults are not employed. Not unemployed, just not employed. Many (most?) people want to get that stuff out of the way so that they can do what they actually want, like spend time with their families, hobbies, watching TV, learning etc. This is probably what they mean by "more productive", not "more output per unit time at work". Just more efficient with their time, more organised, etc.
- marcusverus 4y ago
  It's possible that I missed something, so I don't want to call the author a lying liar. But I feel confident saying that line is... mistaken. First off, this was not a general survey as implied, but a survey of Headway app users.[0] So "most people..." should be "most users of the productivity app Headway...". Also, the author says "productivity is most people’s number one priority in life"... but the Headway website[0] says no such thing. The closest it gets is "Headway polled over 1 million users from the US (800K), the UK (150K), and Australia (85K) from January to July 2022 to determine the most popular self-growth goals." For me personally, my self-growth goals (code better) have little to do with my priorities (family, friends, etc), so conflating the two seems deceptive. The fact that these two mistakes bolster the authors point is, no doubt, a happy coincidence. [0]https://apps.get-headway.com/productivity-survey/ https://apps.get-headway.com/productivity-survey/
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    It's also a...productivity app. Of course the people who want to use such an app would self select to pick being productive as their priority, and it might not even be permanently, just temporarily in order to make themselves feel good too, psychologically telling themselves that they should be productive.
rpastuszak 4y ago
Precisely the reason I make things like Sit: https://sonnet.io/posts/sit https://sonnet.io/posts/sit or Enso: write.sonnet.io (Please share it with a friend who needs to sit the fuck down or enjoy the experience yourself.)
- Cardinal7167 4y ago
  Hey, Thanks for making Enso! I think that’s one of the smartest writing tools I’ve ever used.
  - rpastuszak 4y ago
    Thanks, the funny thing is that I'm doing my best to make it as stupid as possible:)
- marcusverus 4y ago
  > And remember: every minute spent in Sit. is $0.01 Mark Zuckerberg can't spend on metaverse. I actually loled
- natmaka 4y ago
  Sometimes I sit and think, and then again I just sit. -- An old fisherman
datavirtue 4y ago
Ah productivity metrics...let the pseudo-science begin... There is nothing more maddening to good employees than to see this garbage rolled out by HR and some pointy-haired boss. To be experimented on with their livelyhood and happiness being the first casualties of the inevitable failure.
- Cardinal7167 4y ago
  Absolutely. Pseudo-science, snake oil, and sales pitches all with the promise of a pretty dashboard for an engineering manager who hasn’t written code in a decade to judge me by. Honestly, if there’s one thing that will get me to leave this career I love, it’ll be developer productivity metrics.
llamajams 4y ago
I have been on both sides of the fence on this one...and it's rough. There are/ were people making ludicrous amounts money that did nothing, or openly did a second job.But it didn't matter because there's free money, and the workaholics made up for them, and management was too busy patting themselves on the back. Now there's "productivity goals", and pressure and an everpresent threat of layoff. I see people working late , overworking and trying to game the metrics.

52 points by Balgair 4y ago

> Workers have even internalized this desire to be productive. A survey of 1 million people by edtech company Headway in late 2022 found that productivity is most people’s number one priority in life. Some 65 percent of Britons, 63 percent of Americans, and 58 percent of Australians rank productivity above having a healthy body, more money, or being happy. Holy shit, this is scary. I hope that survey was somehow botched.

maxlamb 4y ago
If you live in one of these 3 countries it doesn’t seem surprising at all.
- shapefrog 4y ago
  If you live in the UK you know for sure that 65% of people would not rank productivity on any list of priorities.
  - maxlamb 4y ago
    Even in London? It seemed that way when I worked in London for a few months. I realize it was a small sample size, but it seemed to be the case for 95% of my coworkers so I figured 65% on the whole is believable.
    - throwaway22032 4y ago
      Approximately 20-25% of working age UK adults are not employed. Not unemployed, just not employed. Many (most?) people want to get that stuff out of the way so that they can do what they actually want, like spend time with their families, hobbies, watching TV, learning etc. This is probably what they mean by "more productive", not "more output per unit time at work". Just more efficient with their time, more organised, etc.
marcusverus 4y ago
It's possible that I missed something, so I don't want to call the author a lying liar. But I feel confident saying that line is... mistaken. First off, this was not a general survey as implied, but a survey of Headway app users.[0] So "most people..." should be "most users of the productivity app Headway...". Also, the author says "productivity is most people’s number one priority in life"... but the Headway website[0] says no such thing. The closest it gets is "Headway polled over 1 million users from the US (800K), the UK (150K), and Australia (85K) from January to July 2022 to determine the most popular self-growth goals." For me personally, my self-growth goals (code better) have little to do with my priorities (family, friends, etc), so conflating the two seems deceptive. The fact that these two mistakes bolster the authors point is, no doubt, a happy coincidence. [0]https://apps.get-headway.com/productivity-survey/ https://apps.get-headway.com/productivity-survey/
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  It's also a...productivity app. Of course the people who want to use such an app would self select to pick being productive as their priority, and it might not even be permanently, just temporarily in order to make themselves feel good too, psychologically telling themselves that they should be productive.

rpastuszak 4y ago

Precisely the reason I make things like Sit: https://sonnet.io/posts/sit https://sonnet.io/posts/sit or Enso: write.sonnet.io (Please share it with a friend who needs to sit the fuck down or enjoy the experience yourself.)

Cardinal7167 4y ago
Hey, Thanks for making Enso! I think that’s one of the smartest writing tools I’ve ever used.
- rpastuszak 4y ago
  Thanks, the funny thing is that I'm doing my best to make it as stupid as possible:)
marcusverus 4y ago
> And remember: every minute spent in Sit. is $0.01 Mark Zuckerberg can't spend on metaverse. I actually loled
natmaka 4y ago
Sometimes I sit and think, and then again I just sit. -- An old fisherman

datavirtue 4y ago

Ah productivity metrics...let the pseudo-science begin... There is nothing more maddening to good employees than to see this garbage rolled out by HR and some pointy-haired boss. To be experimented on with their livelyhood and happiness being the first casualties of the inevitable failure.

Cardinal7167 4y ago
Absolutely. Pseudo-science, snake oil, and sales pitches all with the promise of a pretty dashboard for an engineering manager who hasn’t written code in a decade to judge me by. Honestly, if there’s one thing that will get me to leave this career I love, it’ll be developer productivity metrics.

llamajams 4y ago

I have been on both sides of the fence on this one...and it's rough. There are/ were people making ludicrous amounts money that did nothing, or openly did a second job.But it didn't matter because there's free money, and the workaholics made up for them, and management was too busy patting themselves on the back. Now there's "productivity goals", and pressure and an everpresent threat of layoff. I see people working late , overworking and trying to game the metrics.