Where has all the productivity gone?

Balaji Srinivasan asks in a Twitter thread why we’re not far more productive given the technology available. Here I collect the five possible explanations he mentions.

  1. The Great Distraction.
    All the productivity we gained has been frittered away on equal-and-opposite distractions like social media, games, etc.
  2. The Great Dissipation.
    The productivity has been dissipated on things like forms, compliance, process, etc.
  3. The Great Divergence.
    The productivity is here, it’s just only harnessed by the indistractable few.
  4. The Great Dilemma.
    The productivity has been burned in bizarre ways that require line-by-line “profiling” of everything.
  5. The Great Dumbness.
    The productivity is here, we’ve just made dumb decisions in the West while others have harnessed it.

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