[HN Gopher] Tech's Productivity Obsession Is Toxic
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       Tech's Productivity Obsession Is Toxic
        
       Author : Balgair
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2023-02-23 19:36 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wired.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.co.uk)
        
       | badpun wrote:
       | > 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.
        
         | marcusverus wrote:
         | 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/
        
         | maxlamb wrote:
         | If you live in one of these 3 countries it doesn't seem
         | surprising at all.
        
           | shapefrog wrote:
           | If you live in the UK you know for sure that 65% of people
           | would not rank productivity on any list of priorities.
        
             | maxlamb wrote:
             | 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 wrote:
               | 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.
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-23 23:02 UTC)