The Law of Productivity

The Increasing Demand for Productivity

The world is more demanding now than it’s ever been. The cost of living and competition for jobs is increasing, with AI outright replacing some jobs. At the same time, wages don’t go as far as they did in previous generations. Some people say that our generation is going to be broker than the last. As a result of these changes, the world is more interested in productivity than ever before. People everywhere are trying to increase how fast, how much, and how well they can achieve things, just so that they can have a chance at surviving in this world.

But most people pursue productivity in narrow-minded and shallow ways. They look for tools, apps, hacks, and tactics to speed up their workflow. Or they imitate what others are doing and simply produce derivative outcomes that don’t add anything to the world. But these shallow productivity tips won’t produce the outcomes people are really looking for. To truly be productive, we must know how to discover new knowledge, and to discover new knowledge, we must learn about the law of productivity.

The Law of Productivity

The law of productivity can be formally stated as follows: “The productiveness of an outcome is proportional to the goodness of the intention with which its causal action was performed.” To put it more simply: we don’t become productive by trying to be productive, but rather, productivity is largely a byproduct of our intentions. The reason our intentions matter so much is because they dictate how we see the world, and how we see the world dictates what we will learn, and what we learn dictates our productivity.

Let’s look at an example.

The Tale of Two Coffee Shops

Here’s the tale of two coffee shop owners: Jim and Janice.

Jim

Jim started his coffee shop with the intention of making lots of money. Whenever customers bought coffee, he analyzed how he set up the store, what he said, and how he acted in relation to how much money he made that day. So he began to learn how to behave in order to maximize his profits. Jim found out that when he lied about the quality of the coffee, saying that it was made from extraordinarily rare beans when it was actually made from regular beans, he made more money. So naturally, he began to lie about the quality of his coffee.

As he made more and more money, he began to tell other lies too, about how his coffee was ethically sourced and so on. In the short term, he began to make lots of money, and from the outside, it seemed as if he was very productive. But eventually, a journalist who had received an anonymous tip from one of Jim’s employees began to do an investigation. She uncovered the truth of Jim’s deceitful operation and exposed it to the public. As a result, Jim was sued and went bankrupt.

Janice

Janice, on the other hand, started her coffee shop with the intention of serving her community with the best possible coffee they could find. Whenever customers bought coffee from her, she analyzed how they reacted to different beans and brewing methods. So she began to learn how to create the absolutely perfect cup of coffee. But creating the perfect cup of coffee was expensive, and so she had to charge her customers a premium rate. In the short term, customers refused to pay and went somewhere else. Janice was making enough to get by, so she stuck by her decision to make premium coffee and sell it at the fairest price she could.

Eventually, a blogger and tastemaker in the city found her cafe and tried it out. The blogger found the coffee to be exquisite, so shortly after her visit, she promoted the cafe on all her socials. People from all over the city flocked to Janice’s coffee shop, with lines building up out the front door, just so that they could try her amazing coffee. As a result, Janice grew a thriving and successful business.

Conclusion

So while Jim seemed productive in the short term, his productivity was actually undermined by his own selfish intentions. On the other hand, while Janice seemed unproductive in the short term, her productivity was actually improved by her selfless intentions.

Takeaways

So if we want to live a productive life, it all begins with our intentions. Our intentions dictate how we pay attention to the world, and how we pay attention to the world dictates what we learn, and what we learn ultimately decides our productivity. If our intentions are selfish, we pay attention to the world in a selfish way, and if we pay attention to the world in a selfish way, we learn to serve ourselves at the expense of others. And if our actions hurt that community around us, they will ultimately be unproductive because we are a part of that community.

But if our intentions are selfless, we pay attention to the world in a selfless way, and if we pay attention to the world in a selfless way, we learn to serve others. And if our actions help the community around us, they will ultimately be productive because we are part of that community too.