Dabbling

The word “productivity” has its origins in the 19th century, back when industrialization and scaling-up everything was becoming the dominant approach to, and philosophy of, labor.

It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that the word literally refers to the rate of output per unit of input: how many widgets a worker can make each hour, for instance.

In recent decades, this word has sprawled to encompass other aspects of life.

There are productive and unproductive uses of our time, the former...