Productivity Culture Quotes

One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.

I hate downtime.

Down time is not the name of the game.

Thinking is generally thought of as doing nothing in a production-oriented society, and doing nothing is hard to do. It's best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.

Labour-saving devices just make us try to cram more pointless activities into each day, rather than doing the important thing, which is to enjoy our life.

How can we embrace rest and play if we've tied our self-worth to what we produce?

I don't worship at the alter of efficiency.

There is nothing shameful about being efficient.

Today we often use deadlines—real and imaginary—to imprison ourselves.

I push every day against forces that say you have to go faster, be more effective, be more productive, you have to constantly outdo yourself, you have to constantly outdo your neighbor - all of the stuff that creates an incredibly productive society, but also a very neurotic one.

Saving time, it seems, has a primacy that's too rarely examined.

Continuous productivity manifests itself as an environment where the evolving tools and culture make it possible to innovate more and faster than ever, with significantly improved execution.

We have stigmatised sleep with the label of laziness.

Shopping is Not Creating.

I live a half mile from the San Andreas fault - a fact that bubbles up into my consciousness every time some other part of the world experiences an earthquake. I sometimes wonder whether this subterranean sense of impending disaster is at least partly responsible for Silicon Valley's feverish, get-it-done-yesterday work norms.

The time has come to challenge our obsession with doing everything more quickly.