The Religion of Productivity, Oliver Burkeman

For years the journalist Oliver Burkeman became obsessed with productivity and personal growth, documenting his explorations in a weekly column. Finally it struck him that this attempt was a deeply religious quest, tied into ideas of perfectibility and salvation. When he realised this, he was finally able to find more peace.
"For me, the obsession with productivity was totally tied up with this weird self-worth question. [There's] this whole notion that it's all focussed on some moment when everything's going to be alright…there's something about that feels like it's got something to do with justification and salvation, and that feels very religious to me."
Oliver is someone who has had a similar path to Rebel Wisdom’s founder David Fuller, working for the legacy media, and also very interested in personal growth, and they sat down for a wide ranging and fascinating conversation which we are releasing now as a special preview for all Rebel Wisdom subscribers.
Check out Oliver's latest book 'Four Thousand Weeks', a sobering allusion to the average human lifespan: www.oliverburkeman.com/books

[@jordanthornton]

Watched this on 2x speed while power walking through my local nature reserve - didn't notice a single bird, tree or sheep, thanks guys! (More seriously, this is a great conversation - thank you for posting these long-form dialogues on relevant issues with practical suggestions for us to reclaim slow-attention and inner happiness)

[@torbjornkarlsen]

The whole point of productivity is saving time so there's more time to do nothing. For me anyway.

[@MrMadalien]

Hmm.. i can agree with that, but I often tell myself that but end up viewing everything through that “time is money” lens which has been very destructive in my life. I’ve come to realize that every single moment, Every. Single. Moment. Needs to be fully enjoyed and not rushed. If you rush one aspect of your life, that is the framework for everything else.

[@Xtazieyo]

Great, now I have to rewatch the American Psycho monologue for the rest of the evening so that I can get back to my sigma male grindset.

[@MrMadalien]

Real Sigma males are spiritually productive not financially productive

[@whthrn]

Thank you 💛 @Oliver and Rebel Wisdom

[@threethrushes]

I watched this on x2 speed, and downloaded a speech-to-text app to type this out. I win.

[@ChristopherDH]

What is the name of the app?

[@filmjazz]

@@johnnormal1422 34 minutes of life force at a nursing home in 2054 lol

[@michaelmorrisinfarsi]

Thank you David. I really appreciate whenever you put up a video. I’ve gotten caught up in the productivity hype too. Gotta take breaks and pauses sometimes. Sometimes slowin’ down a little bit can be more beneficial in the long run. Thank you so much, David, for all the deep introspection you bring into the online sense-making space. It is greatly appreciated, mate - from across the pond ✌️

[@drumanddrummer2959]

Grind grind ground

[@Onyaanya100]

A great accompaniment to Oliver Burkeman's book, which I'm thoroughly enjoying

[@Kyouma.]

That's how I always saw productivity: justifying one's existence

[@martingifford5415]

English resignation and American aspiration are both reactions to illusion. Resignation is based on the assumption that people or the world are faulty, and aspiration is based on the assumption that we are needy, i.e. that we need to improve and gain. The third option is liberation from those illusions.

[@filmjazz]

We should all simply focus on respiration.

[@martingifford5415]

@@filmjazz Resignation, aspiration, liberation, respiration... Sometimes think it's animation waiting for the revelation.

[@randomname3109]

Anyone concerned with their 'productivity' has had their mind occupied by their employer, and is complicit in their own exploitation

[@zardiac521]

I agree but I would also add that the employer is incentiviced for that behaviour through the system of limitless-growth capitalism

[@AV-ws2rz]

Anyone, really? How about productivity for a writer? An artist? A scientist? An entrepreneur? What if you are your own employer? And aren't we all, in a sense, our own lifelong employers? Much as we are our own best friends, worst enemies, and strictest critics? Not everything that feels like exploitation in the moment is necessarily that in the long run. A parent must be reasonably strict towards their child so they can survive in the world. Your cells must be dying off continuously for you to live. A doctor must hurt the patient momentarily in order to remove a tumour. I must force myself to practice sports in order to stay healthy. Phoenix sheds its very self in the flame of salvation and rebirth.

[@michaelnice93]

I have thought the same about productivity being possession of our mind by the system. I feel this way about ‘saving the world’ and ‘making the world a better place’ these ideas are also values that serve the system. It’s like we believe we are in charge or responsible for the culture at large. Its mental illness really.

[@ekenomic]

Die capitalist running dogs!

[@dei2226]

@@AV-ws2rz you ask good questions, but you rush to answers.

[@nnnnsaakadamanas218]

Cult of Usefulness

[@morgengold]

I never understood the obsession with productivity, when focus on the right things is the real issue.

[@lucrativeleadershipconvers5149]

Yep, I've been researching negotiation, education and collaboration support software. The collusion between education/politics/commercial interests has resulted in priming humans to be either sheeps or wolves.

[@seanmcevoy5151]

great conversation! just pointing out that the camera gets obscured at 53 minutes. hardly intentional? i remember reading oliver's "the antidote" several years ago, great to see him on the channel.

[@kerrinnaude2777]

This was great. Though it should not go amiss that most of the very real need for enhanced productivity is the result of fiat economics and how average people have been driven functionally insane by the need to invest (versus save).

[@beerman204]

Is the American standard and injunction of the virtues of productivity a natural and important human trait or is it essentially the main driver by which capitalism steers our lives under it's conformist and demanding supervision?

[@andywilliams7989]

24m40. Auto derision is the British martial art.

[@filmjazz]

That’s great and I’m going to use that: “I’m sorry, was that rude? My auto-derision filter strikes again!”

[@andywilliams7989]

Only if you are truly British, otherwise it's cultural appropriation!

[@marksplendidtv]

leathal choir singing😂

[@Alexgiovanez]

I see an underlying ideology that affects this channels sensemaking. Although it is mentioned that an common attitude is to reach salvation and other impossible goals but than you refer to that anxiety arises when something is not integrated and we should integrate whats repressed and so on. This presupposes in a sense that there is a level of integration which resolves these tentions which refers to this notion of salvation. The thing is that existential anxiety is produced because of the impossibility of complete integration. This impossibility is not just a barrier to objective reality like a lot of Jungian gnosticist claim but it is the place of truth. The hegelian dialectic is not thesis antithesis synthesis, when Hegel refers to aufhebung that is confused with synthesis, he says that there is a positivity (a gain or access to objective reality) in the unreconciable antagonisms of reality.

[@AV-ws2rz]

What do you mean by an underlying ideology? I don't think what was pronounced in the video contradicts what you said. It seems to me that the entire conversation was about exactly that---the impossibility of complete and ultimate X (be it integration, synthesis, peace of mind, or the most optimal productivity technique) within the finitary predicament of human existence; everything is a never-ending evolving process. In other words, yes, there is a level of integration which resolves these (some particular) tensions, and no, it does not resolve all tension completely.

[@Alexgiovanez]

@@AV-ws2rz No you are right this why I started with that they mention it. But nonetheless even if said the framework of thought is to jungian or dualistic you might say.

[@letitgrownow]

I found this made no sense at all. Thanks 👍

[@dei2226]

Don't you confuse ideas (or sets of ideas) with ideologies?

[@aldebaranredstar]

Yes, you are right about the impossibility of complete integration. We are screwed. Yet as the Bhagavad Gita says re the illumined, awakened one: “to obey the Atman is his peaceful joy; sorrow melts into that clear peace: his quiet mind is soon established in peace.”

[@shady8205]

why both of them are constantly using "kind of" and "sort of" in every sentence they speak, it gets a bit off putting after a while.

[@slamtailsuspension1933]

What? A strange person