Words, Words, Words - Issue #1: “Productivity”
Part One of an Exercise in Amateur Etymology for Practical Use
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Welcome. This is the first installment of what I will endeavor to make a regular series. Release schedule TBD. The idea of this venture is to take a deep dive on certain terms that crop up in popular usage and culture and see if we can’t make some sense of their meaning across time and how we might reclaim some of the more ruined ones. And most importantly, how we can get more precise and yet holistic definitions and concepts in our heads that will allow us to live better lives. The end goal for me, and I humbly suggest it to you, is the practice of the Good Life. (A final note: the series title is a fun ironic allusion to Hamlet, wherein his reply to Polonius is meant to indicate that what he reads is essentially meaningless. A little joke to keep us humble and to not take things so seriously as we proceed.)
Without much more ado, the word du jour is “productivity” (and the associated adjective “productive”).
What do we usually mean?
We’ll start off each of these issues by exploring a little bit what is commonly meant by a term in our day-to-day collective usage. Yes, this is open to some interpretation and if you think I’m wrong I suppose you can argue with me in the comments, en garde.
We might as well just google (does anyone else detest that this word is a verb now?) the definition to get a feel for the word at present. Consulting the Oracle, I get this: “the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input”.
It seems to me that virtually everyone automatically accepts this definition and concept as a profound virtue. The supreme measure of human worth. What is missing from this definition, and the concept almost everyone has, is anything remotely qualitative. Or Human. No mention is made of the quality of what is produced or what the effects are on the quality of human life. On our growth and flourishing.
The Problem
Productivity as defined above is a concept suited for the creation of widgets and nuts and bolts and other fungible items. Now if you make widgets (and there is no shame in that), I suppose there is no harm in increasing productivity. Perhaps I would prefer a concept more like elegance and precision in widget creation though. This allows for the inclusion of quality work and the joy of craftsmanship. In mere input-output productivity though there is no spirit, no Life. It is the dead action of machines. And that is how your employer sees you, how our culture sees you generally: as an economic unit. If I may implore you: please do not view yourself in this way and impose these lifeless restrictions upon yourself. Guard yourself against this destructive way of judging yourself and the world. You are not a machine designed to “produce”. You are a person.
This is not an argument against capitalism, or the practice of work, or diligent effort. This is about taking your Soul back from a system that cares nothing for you and sees you as a number. Human value cannot be measured with numbers. You do not judge the value and beauty of a symphony by how fast the performance is completed. You do not judge the value and beauty of human interaction by how long it lasts. Or if you do, I would suggest that you do not. In philosophy jargon these judgments of quality and value are called qualitative, as opposed to quantitative. Meaning not “how much?”, but “how well?”, “how deep?”, “how good?”, “how rich with meaning?”. “Productivity” in common parlance is all about quantity. I argue that virtually nothing of value in life can be viewed through the lens of this type of productivity. Valuable human activities can be well-evaluated as creative or generative. Or regenerative for that matter. Consoling or life-affirming. Elegant and meaningful. But almost never “productive” in this sense.
My Attempt at a More Robust Concept
Why all this hullabaloo about being constantly “productive” anyway? The almost irresistible impulse to be “productive” is likely a natural outgrowth of what seems like a basic human desire to feel useful and worthwhile – that you matter and that you are contributing to the world. This impulse is inherently Good, I’d argue.
But this natural and positive need has been corrupted and co-opted by our “culture” and by people that want to run your life. And our fear of being caught idle has been endlessly capitalized upon – a crafty trick to enslave us. The more benign voices that encourage constant productivity are just caught in the same trap. Self-improvement gurus and the like probably mean well (though I doubt some who seem to market their solutions to our deep insecurities), but I think we're all barking up the wrong tree if we accept this definition and the associated galaxy of thought and practice. And then of course there are the insidious voices that deserve no defense.
So here’s the loose etymology of the term and then some proposals for how to change our thinking and our actions based off of it. Productive comes from the Latin producere: “to bring forth”. It most likely had roots in agriculture, some synonyms being “fruitful” and “fertile”.
In a phrase, here is my restatement of the problem: The origin and development of the word “productivity” has baked into it the concept of seasonality and natural growth that is removed by our colder and more industrial current and common idea. The popular idea betrays our unfortunate obsession with machines and rationality and untethered expansion. Whereas the agricultural idea is inextricably linked with natural limits, time, waiting, patience. In short, it is much more out of our direct control. This niggles the modern mind like so many rocks in our shoe. We don’t like the suggestion of limitation even though it is a Good and inescapable part of being a creature and not God ourselves. And of course all manner of destruction and evil comes from trying to be like God, whatever you take that to mean.
Practical Implications
Now we come of course to the implicit question: why should we care about this?
Well, it seems to me that we are all engaged in some type of work. And it should behoove us to make that work worthwhile. And how we understand “worthwhile” and “accomplished” rests a lot on our concepts and the words associated with them. In the more historically rooted (pardon the mild pun) sense, being productive in our work is a good thing. But we need to think about what that means more specifically.
I grant you that I’m no farmer and my knowledge of agriculture is limited to say the least. However, someone who is genuinely passionate about the craft of growing will unquestionably be concerned with the quality of the yield. As I said, the obsession in the industrial, hustle-culture version of “productivity” is with quantity. Often little thought is given to whether or not the thing we are producing ever more of is actually good. And I think this is because in such cases the ideal is complete control. But in growing anything you have to work by indirection. You can control the inputs and the practice itself but the output is dependent on a good many factors outside of your direct control. As Paul puts it in the Bible (referring of course to spiritual growth, but that’s what we’re getting at here anyway): “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” You can substitute “nature” for God here if that is your preferred worldview. The point remains.
And then of course, to restate slightly, what is missing in the bad version of “productivity” are all the virtues that we are missing collectively these days. Patience, attention, letting go, space, hope even. And the very unsexy sounding virtue of managing our expectations. There’s much wisdom in the so-called Serenity Prayer, even for those of us with no overwhelming addiction issues:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.”
So to keep things uncharacteristically short, I’ll say the following. We can and should care deeply and meticulously about the things that are in our control. This comes down to our attention, our development of skill, and getting as right as we can all the things that go in to any work effort. However, what comes out will often be determined by natural factors that are outside our control at all. This is what I mean by indirection. You can’t force a crop to grow. You can only provide favorable conditions. And when it is right, goodness will blossom from those conditions. And when it is not right, the yield will be disappointing. There is a season for every thing in life, as the epigraphic verse so beautifully and immortally puts it. We are simply going along with the way the world actually is and not trying to death grip our way into something that fits our preconceived notions of how life should be. This is a development in wisdom and maturity. And of course, have the faith and hope that when you do your part in planting and watering, God will give the growth at the appropriate time and circumstance.
This essay is a case in point. I didn’t really know where I’d end up but I had a concept in mind. I think Montaigne said something about writing being exploration as much as anything else. I think we can treat all our work this way. We put into our work the best that we know how to do and then we leave the result up to nature and God. If we show up day after day and plant and water, we will one day reap something much more magnificent than what we would have by trying to mechanize the whole process. This will be a great book, or an essay that moves people, or a literal crop of delicious and lovingly grown food, or an honorable business, or a good piece of music, or a strong body, or a virtuous soul. Or even just the quiet glory of a peaceful and well-aged love between two people who have planted and watered their relationship. When we show up consistently and put in our best, the harvest will come. And it will be beautiful.
And then we can say that we have been truly productive.
Loved it, man. The concept, the execution, all perfect.
If every word is a dead metaphor, what you’re doing here is autopsy. And this is a good thing, only that way we can understand “why the patient died.” Pardon me this weird analogy, though :D
Looking forward for the next part. I love etymology and going to write something about the words myself (although it’s difficult for a non-native speaker).
Yes, yes and yes. The pursuit of slow excellence, rather than fast results. That is very much in line with practicing the Good Life.