Question: How easy is it for you to be truly productive, each day, in your work?
The hypothesis: Productivity is a basic and fundamental source of human happiness.
Very little has been written about the impact of productivity on basic human happiness. Jane McGonigal in her book REALITY IS BROKEN discusses “blissful productivity”. Tony Hsieh in his book DELIVERING HAPPINESS explains that a sense of perceived progress is essential to human happiness. (I refer and build upon the work of these authors in my book, THE CULTURE GAME.)
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A writer named Wallace Ward (pen name: Frank Wallace) wrote a book in the 1970’s called “The Advanced Concepts of Poker”. In this Appendix of this book he describes poker as a “profitable yet unproductive activity.”
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He goes on to say:
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Poker can work against the good player’s self-esteem and happiness no matter how much money he wins since the source of self-esteem and happiness lies in being productive, and poker is a nonproductive activity. Also, in the long run, a person will almost always earn more money by pursuing productive routes rather than nonproductive or destructive routes. [1]
Productivity is defined as adding to the sum total of mankind’s material, intellectual, physiological. psychological, or aesthetic well-being. Humans earn genuine self-esteem and happiness through the pursuit of productive goals. [2]