Turdera, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Photo by: Gustavo Adrián Salvini
Pushing productivity to the extreme just because we can makes no real sense to me. That so-called “sense of urgency” pushed by some pseudo-mentors or influencers in the entrepreneurial world… is it sustainable? Does it even make sense?
Or maybe there are people who want us to “feel part of something bigger.”. But what if that something is a system that squeezes us like fuel to light up rooms in someone else’s house, a house that isn’t ours?
I imagine the scene from afar and feel like we’re those poor hamsters running endlessly on a wheel, chasing an unreachable lure, until we collapse.
Are we humans, or just poor hamsters? But what if this overuse of “urgency” drops us dead in our tracks? And yes, I mean literally, not metaphorically. Sometimes, to be clear, you have to use extreme examples.
Productivity for its own sake? Just because the tools exist to go faster, does that mean we have to use them?
What about the dreams and desires we had as kids? What about our personal projects? Are we really going to cast them aside that easily?
Aren’t we getting hypnotized all over again? They used to talk about “little colored mirrors” during the so-called “conquest” of the Americas. Isn’t this the same thing, just more massive and immediate?
What if, instead of constantly buying and selling hype, we paused to think about other, more meaningful metrics? What if real productivity was measured in “how many good actions I can take in a day” or “how much positive impact I can bring to others”?
Yes, I get it. We need to earn money. I do too. But maybe it’s worth thinking about business strategies that don’t strip us of our humanity. Because if we don’t, we’ll end up paying a price no amount of money can fix.
Do you enjoy being surrounded by hyper-productive colleagues, hypnotized by twenty different systems, dashboards, CRMs, bots, and analytics, believing they’re being innovative, special, and making an “impact”?
Well, impact can also leave a dent. On yourself, and on those around you.
What if we’re stuck in an echo chamber, where confirmation bias makes us validate our own ideas without ever confronting the outside world?
In a hyper-accelerated world where we’re led to believe that the sole purpose is to produce, where “having time to slow down and reflect” feels like a luxury, how far are we drifting from the dreams and longings of our childhood? We don’t know, because we don’t stop. We don’t look back. We don’t look forward. And we certainly don’t pause to breathe deeply and live in the present.
Speeding up like this might feel like riding downhill on a paved road. The wind in your face feels good. It takes little effort and even less skill to stay in control, especially compared to rough, winding, gravel paths.
But what if that road ends in a cliff?
Pause.