The Problem With Productivity

The Yes Theory Podcast

Yes Theory

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever struggled to do your laundry, re-register your car, or make time to go to the dentist? It might make you feel like you’re terrible at “adulting,” but it turns out that’s actually more normal than you think and there might be a pretty solid explanation: burnout. Anne Helen Peterson, author of Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, joins Matt in this episode to talk about the costs of living in an achievement-obsessed culture, how monetizing what you love can get in the way of building a life, and the systemic issues that have perpetuated a system of workaholism. We also hear personal burnout experiences from members of the Yes Theory community. And through these accounts, we realize - we’re all struggling to find a sense of balance in our lives. Generationally, we have no safety net. Job security feels like an illusion and pension-style retirement packages are a relic of the past. And the alternative offer of personal freedom - to work wherever, whenever - comes with a lot of costs to health and happiness. We are tethered to our devices, and feel like insufficient human beings when we aren’t being productive. Though we’ve been trained to believe we need to do more to be more, maybe it’s actually the other way around. But how do we start altering the system and building lives that we don’t feel the need to escape from? That’s what we’re getting into in this episode. To learn more on the topic of generational burnout, check out Anne’s book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the summer of 2018, Yes Theory had just reached a million subscribers.
0:07.0	This had been a huge goal of ours from the beginning.
0:10.0	It's November 4th, 2015.
0:14.0	We're stuck in our tiny little apartment
0:16.3	with zero money in our bank account.
0:18.8	And to celebrate, we decided to go to Europe
0:21.0	and, well, hustle even more. But on this trip, Amara Thomas and I didn't feel like ourselves. We spent most of the time in our hotel rooms sleeping and talking about all the things we'd like to do if we could
0:34.6	only scrounge up enough energy. One morning we were supposed to shoot a video inviting a
0:39.3	random stranger to go on a trip with us who would then invite another stranger to join her.
0:44.2	But when we left the hotel, we realize it started to rain. And y'all know, usually rain wouldn't have stopped us.
0:51.2	We would have embraced the unexpected weather and set up a slip and sled or something.
0:55.4	But that day we were running on empty. Our hustle was parasitic, growing the business while sucking us dry.
1:02.5	So we took a literal rain check and went back into the hotel to crash.
1:06.5	It was around that time that we got word that there was a chance that we can meet one of our biggest idols ever.
1:11.5	I cannot believe how much YouTube has awakened me.
1:18.0	I'm finding my voice.
1:20.0	There's so much stuff I wanted to say. Will freaking Smith.
1:24.7	something Thomas Amar and I were going to rally for no matter what.
1:29.2	Earlier that year, Will had started his own YouTube channel.
1:31.8	We were obsessed with his videos. It felt like the biggest star in the world that joined the team.
1:37.0	Our team. So after brainstorming a million ways to collaborate,
1:41.0	Amar came up with an idea that we thought was just
	...

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