Is 'High Productivity' Truly Good for Humans?

Chapter 1 | It is not your fault that you feel 'worthless if you don't produce results'

For example, there are days like this.

• You spent hours refining a document, only for it to be scrapped in the end

• You spent the whole day thinking but couldn't produce anything, leading you to ask yourself, 'What did I even do today?'

• You read a book but closed it without understanding the content

We feel such time is 'wasted.'
To be precise, we feel a sense of guiltabout the fact that 'results are not visible.'

However, that discomfort is not your personal problem.

I would like to start by delving into the origins of this value system and its side effects.

Chapter 2 | 'Productivity' was originally a 'metric for evaluating machines'

In the first place, the term 'productivity' was not a concept invented for humans.
Its origins lie in the factories of the Industrial Revolution.

• How much was produced per labor hour

• How much costs were minimized

• How efficiently processes were parallelized without waste

These were all invented as indicators to measure 'processes, not people.'

But now, we are—

• The shortness of time spent by a person

• The speed of decision-making

• The 'stamina' to keep moving without resting

—talking about human value through elements such as these.

Chapter 3 | Why has 'unproductive time' become unbearable for modern people?

I would like you to consider a specific example here.

For instance, suppose you spent an hour just zoning out at a cafe.
If a friend asked, 'What were you doing?', how would you answer?

'I wasn't really doing anything.'
'I was just clearing my head a bit.'
'I think I was just resetting my mood.'

Answers like these are often spokenwith a sense of apology.Why is that?

This has eroded not only our work and creative endeavors but also our everyday sensibilities.

• No one posts about time spent doing nothing on social media.

• People feel anxious if they appear to be the only ones 'not working hard.'

• People feel that if their thoughts aren't visualized, their very existence feels diminished.

This 'pressure to visualize' is strengthening the sense that unproductive time is equivalent to 'nothingness'.

Chapter 4 | However, things of true value can sometimes reside in 'inefficient time'

When productivity becomes the metric for value,
in that process,hard-to-see values are lost..

In fact, many creative, strategic, and artistic acts require inefficiency.

✅ The process of formulating questions

Continuing to think about themes without answers is extremely inefficient.
Sometimes, after spending many days, you realize, 'This wasn't even a question to begin with.'

But without this history of 'failed questions,' high-precision questions cannot be born.

✅ Building human relationships

Trust is not built through a single achievement or performance.
The shared experience of 'having spent meaningless time together' creates the foundation for a relationship.

It cannot be measured by short-term 'results'.

✅ The formation of sensibility

Being moved by something, noticing a sense of discomfort, holding onto things that cannot be put into words.
These cannot be acquired instantly.
Experiences where you 'don't know if there is any meaning' will have an effect after a time lag.

Chapter 5 | Perspectives to rethink in order not to become a 'slave to productivity'

There is no need to completely deny productivity.
However, the moment it becomesthe standard that determines the entire value of lifeis when we lose sight of ourselves.

To notice that sense of discomfort, it is effective to hold questions like the following.

• Today, although there was no output, was the 'quality of input' high?

• Although there were no results, did the 'depth of thought' progress?

• Although it was invisible to anyone else, was there a 'certain feeling that only you could understand'?

Conclusion | The strength to say 'there is meaning even in time when no results are produced'

We are now unable to tolerate the fact that
'what we did' and 'the results produced' do not match.

However, for many human activities, the cause and effect are ambiguous.

• You don't immediately know what your thoughts will amount to

• You cannot decide for yourself who the words you put out will reach

• You cannot see how what you are doing now will connect a year from now

A day without results might actually be a day when you 'lived deeply'.

I will write again.

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