Most people are only truly productive for 3-4 hours a day
December 4, 2023 10:37 AM Subscribe
"I don't need to get the most juice out of every single lime" [TikTok] "If I could make as much money as possible I would be a total prick, a con man, or both!"
Tom Fell is painfully funny.
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Dying is My One True Shot at Retirement
Tom Fell is painfully funny.
Portfolio
Dying is My One True Shot at Retirement
Tom Fell is one of the very few people I don't know that I follow in Instagram. Fascinating that he works as a UX content strategist as well, which is what my spouse does.
He is also the brainchild behind FlipHam.com and is half of a very funny comedy duo that gets pushed into his Instagram feed (and probably TikTok, but I don't use it). I'd link it here but the name is something that might get me fired if I keep using it as search terms.
posted by mcstayinskool at 11:24 AM on December 4, 2023
He is also the brainchild behind FlipHam.com and is half of a very funny comedy duo that gets pushed into his Instagram feed (and probably TikTok, but I don't use it). I'd link it here but the name is something that might get me fired if I keep using it as search terms.
posted by mcstayinskool at 11:24 AM on December 4, 2023
I once tried to negotiate a work contract based on what time of day they wanted me in the office, my morning brain being worth more than my afternoon or evening brain.
They wanted no part of it. They wanted the best of me whenever and wherever. So they got my whatever rate. And then a couple of months in, I got fired for something the boss did. But that's another story.
posted by philip-random at 11:25 AM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
They wanted no part of it. They wanted the best of me whenever and wherever. So they got my whatever rate. And then a couple of months in, I got fired for something the boss did. But that's another story.
posted by philip-random at 11:25 AM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
American Psychological Association Announces “Feeling Like Dying But Not Really Suicidal” New Baseline For Normal Mental Health.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 12:14 PM on December 4, 2023 [34 favorites]
posted by MonsieurPEB at 12:14 PM on December 4, 2023 [34 favorites]
Everybody complains about capitalism, but nobody has time and energy left to do anything about it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:38 PM on December 4, 2023 [15 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:38 PM on December 4, 2023 [15 favorites]
This is funny but also reflects the common error, the one my bosses used to make, when the manager would wander around the kitchen shouting ‘productivity! Productivity!’ Did he mean that he was going to innovate his kitchen processes, allocate workers to tasks more efficiently, design a menu with simpler or faster dishes, perhaps update his contracts with suppliers? No, all he meant was ‘work harder’, of course, which is not ‘productivity’, a simple measure of the ratio of economic outputs to inputs. And working harder is often exactly at odds with ‘productivity’, for all the reasons Fell lists in the video.
Nobody is productive for eight hours a day. Almost nobody is productive. Systems are productive, not people.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:09 PM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Nobody is productive for eight hours a day. Almost nobody is productive. Systems are productive, not people.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:09 PM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
I'm slightly more productive now than previous because
I'm slightly more efficient than I previously was
posted by knoxg at 1:29 PM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
I'm slightly more efficient than I previously was
posted by knoxg at 1:29 PM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Everybody complains about capitalism, but nobody has time and energy left to do anything about it.
We work too hard.
We’re too tired
To fall in love.
Therefore we must
Overthrow the government.
We work too hard.
We’re too tired
To overthrow the government.
Therefore we must
Fall in love.
-Rod Smith, "pour la CGT" (NYT; ungated)
posted by Gerald Bostock at 3:30 PM on December 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
We work too hard.
We’re too tired
To fall in love.
Therefore we must
Overthrow the government.
We work too hard.
We’re too tired
To overthrow the government.
Therefore we must
Fall in love.
-Rod Smith, "pour la CGT" (NYT; ungated)
posted by Gerald Bostock at 3:30 PM on December 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
Dying Is My One True Shot at Retirement absolutely nails the tone of promotional videos. Laughing while my skin is trying to crawl straight off my body is quite a sensation.
posted by EvaDestruction at 3:47 PM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by EvaDestruction at 3:47 PM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Conversation with a director at silicon valley company I was working at about productivity:
"I had a guy working for me, he could do more in an hour than most people could do in a day. Incredibly productive."
"That sounds great"
"The problem is he would only work eight hours a day. He claimed he got tired."
"What happened?"
"I had to let him go. He was affecting the morale of the team by going home early [after 8 hours]"
posted by jellacious at 1:15 AM on December 5, 2023 [21 favorites]
"I had a guy working for me, he could do more in an hour than most people could do in a day. Incredibly productive."
"That sounds great"
"The problem is he would only work eight hours a day. He claimed he got tired."
"What happened?"
"I had to let him go. He was affecting the morale of the team by going home early [after 8 hours]"
posted by jellacious at 1:15 AM on December 5, 2023 [21 favorites]
See also, The Nap Ministry.
Grind culture is linked with white supremacy.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:52 AM on December 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
Grind culture is linked with white supremacy.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:52 AM on December 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
3-4 hours a day of "productive" time makes perfect fucking sense, considering that that's how much daily work humans in a gathering/hunting society have to do. Sure, there might be times it's all hands on deck (building a new longhouse, harvesting something) but that's short-term and the benefits are immediately tangible. Working 3-4 hours a day getting food and supplies and then just chilling and doing low-impact crafts and sleeping is normal for people, anthropologically speaking.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 9:09 AM on December 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Nibbly Fang at 9:09 AM on December 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
It's kind of insane when you realize this also applies to kids.
Poor critters are in school all day, in training to be conformists and newly minted capitalist resources. Little Llama is in high school and it's amazing the pressure they get to have a plan and there is so little pushback.
Plans for their lives.
Kid's got seventeen types of hair conditioner and she's supposed to have career plans? How will she find the time when she's got all this hair conditioner to work through? Don't even get me started on moisturizers.
'What are you going to do with your life?' What a question to ask a kid. What a question to ask an adult, for that matter.
Just being a good and happy person is way undervalued. People act like achievement is the way to get there and maybe sometimes for some people it is, but for a lot more people it's just misery making, and even a lot of hypothetically happy overachievers have their own internal struggles, pressures, and anxieties.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:08 PM on December 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
Poor critters are in school all day, in training to be conformists and newly minted capitalist resources. Little Llama is in high school and it's amazing the pressure they get to have a plan and there is so little pushback.
Plans for their lives.
Kid's got seventeen types of hair conditioner and she's supposed to have career plans? How will she find the time when she's got all this hair conditioner to work through? Don't even get me started on moisturizers.
'What are you going to do with your life?' What a question to ask a kid. What a question to ask an adult, for that matter.
Just being a good and happy person is way undervalued. People act like achievement is the way to get there and maybe sometimes for some people it is, but for a lot more people it's just misery making, and even a lot of hypothetically happy overachievers have their own internal struggles, pressures, and anxieties.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:08 PM on December 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
A Terrible Llama: I often tell people I want nothing more than for Mini Bowties to be average. Just hang out in the middle of the bell curve, be a dilettante, maybe be competent enough at some things to enjoy hobbies, but none of this push to achieve and be extraordinary. Just be happy and be loved and loving. I have zero interest in tracking him into achievement and competition as a toddler. People get so appalled about that.
I need to save this video and rewatch it every time I beat myself up over how much I don't get done in a day.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 1:38 PM on December 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
I need to save this video and rewatch it every time I beat myself up over how much I don't get done in a day.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 1:38 PM on December 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
Grind culture is linked with white supremacy.
How so?
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:05 PM on December 5, 2023
How so?
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:05 PM on December 5, 2023
(I do love Tom Fell's stuff.)
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:09 PM on December 5, 2023
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:09 PM on December 5, 2023
Grind culture is linked with white supremacy.
How so?
The absolute worst people in the world are into both?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:11 AM on December 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
How so?
The absolute worst people in the world are into both?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:11 AM on December 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Grind culture is linked with white supremacy.
How so?
The Nap Ministry covers this much better than I could. A good introduction to it can be found by reading some of the Instagram, or reading the previous post.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:51 AM on December 6, 2023
How so?
The Nap Ministry covers this much better than I could. A good introduction to it can be found by reading some of the Instagram, or reading the previous post.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:51 AM on December 6, 2023
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this is funny, but also hits close to the bone. I have always struggled with "laziness" and feeling like I should have/be accomplishing more. I'm so smart! I'm so creative! why have I not yet written the Great American NovelTM????? what is wrong with me?
rather, what is wrong with our society, in which a person's value is only measured by the amount of capital that can be squeezed from their carcass?
posted by supermedusa at 11:03 AM on December 4, 2023 [30 favorites]