> In office jobs, by contrast, productivity remains rooted in notions of busyness and multi-faceted activity. The most productive knowledge workers are those who stay on top of their inboxes and somehow juggle the dozens of obligations, from the small tasks to major projects, hurled in their direction every week.
I disagree. I think this looks productive, but people who only do this will hit a terminal level and find themselves stuck.
Getting above this, into Principle/Director/Executive ranks certainly requires being a great communicator, but also typically involves __success__. I see this as shipping a successful product, closing a key customer deal, etc.
It's easy to see productive people and expect that being on top of email and product plans is what made them successful, but this is only an effect of their productivity and mastery of the product development.
Note that John Wick did have great production values: it needed much more than 'just' Keano. That logistics happened in the background.
You might be misunderstanding what Cal Newport is saying here because he agrees with you. He is saying is the people who stay on top of their inboxes and multitask are perceived as being the most productive, not that they are in fact the most productive. He also wrote an entire book that might as well be about his hatred of email titled "A World Without Email," if you need further evidence of his position.
Cal’s writing isn’t clear on where he lands. But he’s probably around to clarify, somewhere. Let’s all send him emails, tweets, etc and see how quickly he replies.
I disagree. I think this looks productive, but people who only do this will hit a terminal level and find themselves stuck.
Getting above this, into Principle/Director/Executive ranks certainly requires being a great communicator, but also typically involves __success__. I see this as shipping a successful product, closing a key customer deal, etc.
It's easy to see productive people and expect that being on top of email and product plans is what made them successful, but this is only an effect of their productivity and mastery of the product development.
Note that John Wick did have great production values: it needed much more than 'just' Keano. That logistics happened in the background.