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Over 10 years ago, I wrote my first blog post. Since then, I've authored books, had kids, traveled the world, found Trish and blogged about it all.

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Thursday April 10, 2003

America's obsession with Productivity

My family and I had a great time last night. I picked my Dad up from the airport and we hit a local microbrewery on the way home so I could school him at a couple of games of pool. He's usually pretty good, but the more beer I drank, the better I got, while it was the opposite for him. He'll blame it on his age.

One of the hot topics of the night was American's obsession with Productivity. We've talked about this topic many times; we used to call it American males are defined by their jobs. It's sad really, but if you're an American, you know what I'm talking about. If you've ever been out of work, chances are you felt less of yourself for it. The problem my Dad and I were discussing was what happens when you retire? And how do you enjoy your life now when you're so obessesed with productivity?

Russ is experiencing it. He's killing himself being so productive. I do the same thing, staying up late working on an open source project. Where my productivity does nothing more than get my name out there so someone can hire me to be more productive. Why can't we be satisfied with being un-productive? I need to find a middle-ground; a way to be satisfied with spending the entire night away from the computer. I've found that a good hard bike ride or basketball game after work will motivate me to NOT work on the computer - and that's what I'm looking for. I want to be unproductive and satisfied with it. Can you do that - or is it to un-American for you? ;-)

Posted in General at Apr 10 2003, 08:33:30 AM MDT 4 Comments
Comments:

How about moving to Brasil? Portugal? Southern France? Italy?

Posted by Anonymous on April 10, 2003 at 01:44 PM MDT #

Not being an American, I usually do late-night-computer-work; lately it's been mostly my paid job, which I kind of loathe (working on it at home, not the job itself, or the fact that it's paid :-) Actually, Poland has been experiencing growing productivity obsession over the last decade, and I guess I'm a part of the phenomenon. Having said all that, I still find <em>some</em> satisfaction in wasting my evening with a good book. Or a movie. :-)

Posted by Greg Klebus on April 10, 2003 at 02:46 PM MDT #

I had the same concern. For a while I felt I had to be doing something at all times. I would stop working and play a game, and would feel guilty, so I would start working again. I finally figured out that I didn't have to work all the time, that it was OK to have a bit of time to myself. So, I started doing things that I enjoy instead of trying to grow two businesses. So, what are those things that I enjoy? Well, I am still a geek, so I try to learn new things. If I am not in the mood to learn, I watch a movie. I rarely read "for pleasure" during the day because I do that every night before bed. But I think some people (ME) get productive and accomplishment mixed up. I really love the feeling after completing a project or writing that great hack. Or... in my new less productive life... kicking that 16 yr old's butt at WarCraft III online :)

Posted by Carl on April 10, 2003 at 04:05 PM MDT #

And based on the fact that you haven't posted in the last several days, I would guess you either 1. Lost your battle with trying to be non-productive and decided that blogging wasn't "productive" or 2. Really went for the don't-be-productive thing, and aren't doing anything that you don't have to on a computer. ;-)

Posted by Paul Rivers on April 11, 2003 at 11:23 AM MDT #

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