Productivity is a word that plagues my mind.
I (and a large number of my peers) often think about the level of productivity that’s being achieved at any given moment. The things we want to do are assessed in terms of cost-benefit analyses.
More and more young people are opting for all work and no play.
And how could we not? Optimizing our lives is something that is constantly being pushed on social media. Everywhere we look, we can track our sleep, our steps, any metric of health you can imagine, there’s a company selling you a means of tracking it. Track your macros, track your workouts, track it all, their product is the key to your health.
There have been millions of dollars spent to answer how to optimize people’s lives, but not many people have tried to answer why we should try to optimize our lives to this level.
Is it even a good thing?
The short answer of all this is that corporate leaders will spare no expense to make sure that you are the best, most efficient worker that you can possibly be. That’s what this all exists for, being productive.
In a perfect world, regular people would be legally allowed to work 168 hours a week. But due to pesky labor laws companies have to make sure that their employees make the most out of their ~40 hours a week.
If you make people feel guilty enough, eventually they’ll stop sitting outside on their porch with no goal in mind. If everything you do has to serve some larger goal, then you risk losing sight of what we’re really here for: to be unproductive.
Whatever is conventionally unproductive may be the key to getting an authentic human experience in 2026.
Sitting outside and enjoying a coffee, no plans for the day, listening to some music in your earbuds does not make anyone that much money, so it is generally discouraged in the modern American psyche. We were not made with the intention of making money. We are here to piddle around and have a good time.
Being productive is a form of quiet resistance against the big machine of corporatism that can (and gladly will) grind you up, bones and all, for a quick boost of profit margin. Realizing this, ideally, should encourage you to have fewer plans, to go outside and just sit around, and invite anyone who questions your moral values to come sit around with you.
After all, your salary, or how much money you made for your company will not be on your epitaph.
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