Newport-Slow Productivity

Slow Productivity

Metadata

Highlights

Working on an assembly line is repetitive and boring, and the push for individuals to be more efficient in their every action creates conditions that promote injury and exhaustion. But the ability for productivity to generate astonishing economic growth in these sectors swept aside most such concerns. — location: 234

“The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail,” argued Peter Drucker in his influential 1967 book, { The Effective Executive - The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done. “He can only be helped. But he must direct himself.” — location: 260

Without concrete productivity metrics to measure and well-defined processes to improve, companies weren’t clear how they should manage their employees. And as freelancers and small entrepreneurs in the sector became more prevalent, these individuals, responsible only for themselves, weren’t sure how they should manage themselves. It was from this uncertainty that a simple alternative emerged: using visible activity as a crude proxy for actual productivity. — location: 268

PSEUDO-PRODUCTIVITY The use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort. — location: 286