This view of Franklin as the patron saint of busyness, however, misses a more nuanced story. While it’s true that his professional career began in a state of overload, it didn’t stay that way. Biographer H. W. Brands points out that as Franklin ground his way through his thirties, he began to burn out. “Part of Franklin’s problem,” writes Brands, “was that he was starting to stretch himself thin.” It’s here that Franklin made an unexpected and underreported swing toward slow productivity.
