On Toxic Productivity
Ever since the beginning of the AI slopnami, but more specifically since the public diaspora about the technology began and a large number of people — or dare I say the majority? — started to hate the plagiarism machine that Sam Altman and his friends unleashed upon the world, I wondered who exactly are the people that violently defend this technology?
Yes, on the one hand you have big corporations. That's the obvious one. Of course OpenAI and Nvidia are happy with how things are going, because they either make money from it or hope they can milk the venture capitalists even further before they finally exit-scam before the burst of the bubble. My question, however, is, who are the normal people who fanboy over the latest iteration of ChatGPT or Midjourney or whatever iteration of spicy auto-completion tickles their fancy at the moment. Who, in a time where the public opinion on not just Artificial "Intelligence" but the tech sector as a whole is at an all-time low with artists and creatives hating it with every fiber of their beings, decides to die on the hill that endless repetitive plagiarized slop is the future that's not just inevitable but desirable?
You will hear again and again that the AI crowd is just the reboot of the crypto bros from a few years ago. Those people who spent unreasonable amounts of moneys on links to bad monkey JPGEs hosted on the Ethereum blockchain[1], and that is probably true. But if we draw the Venn diagram here, then there is a third crowd that has a surprisingly large overlap with the other two. Maybe more so with AI than with crypto, but ultimately with both, and that is the infamous sphere of productivity addicts.
Now, there is story to tell about the role of productivity in the age of hustle culture and whether it's even something we should view in positive light in the first place, but that's not what I am trying to do here. I think everyone must decide for themselves whether the concept of productivity as it is presented by people on YouTube and the internet in general is something they like, dislike, or outright hate, and I believe that a lot of creators have good intention when they make videos about their study techniques and note-taking approaches. I use and have used tools like Roam Research[2] myself, and when I was a student, I had my own ways of organizing notes and finding them again. Even for casual writing I use some of these tools, for example to create a personal wiki of characters for stories, and so on. And that's fine.
No, the productivity sphere on YouTube in particular, but probably also on other social media platforms I am less familiar with, has a dark side, one which I like to call Toxic Productivity. The difference between toxic productivity people and the normal creators is that the toxic crowd takes it to such extremes that not only everything in their lives has to be maximally productive, but they also — and that's where the toxic part comes in — look down on people who are less productive than them (however they decide to measure that).
Productivity YouTube isn't new. The trend has been ongoing for over a decade at this point and has evolved from students giving study tips to people making full-blown businesses out of it, and the latter is where the problem lies.
A few of you probably saw some parallels with another group of people: podcast bros. In no medium is toxic productivity as prominent as in the podcast sphere, I'd say. Podcasts about getting rich quick, opening a successful business, or creating your own successful brand are a dime a dozen. The parallel between these people and AI grifters isn't lost on people, with TSMC executive calling Altman a "podcasting bro"[3] when he came in begging for $7 trillion [sic] to further finance his ocean-boiling money sink.
If I asked you to name one creator who personifies what I have described as toxic productivity up until this point, I am sure I would hear many different names. For me, the poster child of toxic productivity is however Ali Abdaal[4].
Productivity on 3.5x Speed
Depending on how terminally online you are on YouTube, you might have never heard that name, and I would not blame you. In a world of people like Andrew Tate, who arguably caters to the same people, namely those striving towards self-improvement, who want to become rich and successful, and who are gullible enough to dump money on everyone who tells them they came solve their problem with a snap of their fingers, Abdaal isn't a big fish at first glance. All things considered, Tate is more toxic than most of the others in the sphere combined, and probably more dangerous too, but he is also more obviously a scam. Tate's audience is very clearly not the average college student but lonely young men who hate women and the world, and I don't want to get into that here. Abdaal, on the other hand, can be considered the polar opposite of that. His book, aptly names "Feel Good Productivity", makes that clear. He's not here to sell you a toxic worldview like Tate. He doesn't want to make you hate women and society. No, he's a nice person and friendly and inclusive.
But let's back up for a moment: who exactly is Ali Abdaal?
On his website, he writes:
Hey, I'm Ali Abdaal. I'm an ex-doctor turned YouTuber, Podcaster, entrepreneur, and author (and I dabble with the occasional investment too).
Abdaal started out as one of the aforementioned college YouTubers who shared study tips on the platform. He was an aspiring doctor attending Cambridge University teaching things like spaced repetition[5] in his videos, a largely uncontroversial learning technique. And if he had stayed with that type of content, I would not even be mentioning him in this article, but as is evident from his introductory sentence on the website, that's not how it went. He's an "ex-doctor turned YouTuber", and on top of that, an "entrepreneur" (I will conveniently ignore the part about "occasional investment" here, but we'll get back to that).
The career of Abdaal is a great example of the pipeline form harmless productivity tips into the realm of toxic productivity, because as he steered from study tips towards helping you maximizing your productivity every waking moment of your life, his videos became different too.
One noteworthy thing about it is that Abdaal was one of the first who did this, so not the whole cult of toxic productivity grew alongside him. Whether or not he's directly responsible or at least largely influential isn't someting I can answer here, but it's at least something to keep in mind.
The most infamous (and since removed) example of this is "How To Watch TV Productively". You might have furrowed your eyebrows at that title and rightfully so. I think even Abdaal himself must have noticed that he went a little too far with that one since he took it down or set it to private a while later, but there is still a Reddit thread discussing it[6] online as well as a video from creator Fr0nzP.[7] which talks about many of the same point I am in this text that has clips of it.
Watching anime and watching TV in general feels to me like kind of a waste of time. And because I worship the ultra-productivity and the only thing I care about is productivity, everything in my life has to be productive, like, you know, listening to audio books at 3.5x speed, […]
This provides a perfect example of Abdaal's mindset. He's not concerned about studying anymore, or about helping you study, he's gone down the path of "ultra-productivity". Before I continue with the TV video, let me show you another one if his: "How I Type REALLY Fast (156 Words per Minute)"[8], and this one is still up and you can enjoy it for yourself. He opens the video up claiming that "having a ridiculously fast typing speed is one of [his] superpowers in life" (0:10) and that "anyone can become at least twice as productive if [they] just increase[d] [their] typing speed" (0:18).
Now, unless you're working as a court reporter (in which case you are probably using stenography anyway) or writing stream-of-consciousness, I argue that this statement is false, because typing faster than you think is probably not the productivity boost that Abdaal thinks it is, but even if you accept his words as true, it demonstrates again his attitude towards life. He even states that things like "going on websites" and "sending messages to friends, [and] all of that stuff becomes quicker therefore you'll become more productive" (1:45).
I think you can see a pattern here. Abdaal believes that cramming more things into every day is the key aspect of productivity. It's probably already questionable whether that's true for studying (because writing more notes in less time doesn't mean you understand the concepts, so shouldn't you study smarter and not faster?), but applying that same approach to your hobbies is just completely insane — which brings us back to the TV video.
So, how does Abdaal watch anime and TV productively you might ask? Well, the fact that his listens to audio books on 3.5x speed should give you an idea.
[…] normally what I do is, I'll just speed-speed-speed-speed-speed-speed-speed up until it gets to an interesting point, and I'll speed it as fast as I can so I can still keep up with it.
And because he obviously can't hear what's being said when watching at 3.5x speed anymore, he's speed-reading subtitles.
I can't be the only one wondering whether he gets any enjoyment out of consuming media this way, can I? Especially because he applies this advice not to lectures of tutorial material or other videos for which this might work, but films and series that have been created to be watched as a recreational activity. How productivity-brained must you be to judge media in a way like this, and what does that even mean? What even is an "interesting point" for someone with a view like that? We don't have to guess, because Abdaal tells us himself that the parts he doesn't have to watch at normal speed are "when it gets to […] building character […] kind-of stuff".
Yes, you read that right: Abdaal thinks that character building in a work of fiction is the stuff you can speed through because it's not interesting or not important. Which makes me wonder why he's even watching any of that to begin with. Sure, there are people who don't enjoy fiction, and who rather spend their time differently, and that's fine, but this reeks of someone who feels guilty for wanting to watch anime or TV, and who needs to find a way to justify doing so by fitting it into their distorted world view in which everything has to serve a productive purpose. And even more so, it shows that Abdaal does not view recreation or relaxation as a productive activity in the first place. He thinks that if you take time out of your day to do something you enjoy that does not directly lead to some sort of tangible gain, monetary or otherwise, it is not worth doing and you're lazy.
That is the definition of toxic productivity.
Of course, this also completely invalidates the work of people who make the shows he skips through (and probably do so for a living). Fr0nzP. puts it best in his video.
Actually thinking that any artistic decision such as pauses, music, or nuances in facial expressions can be disregarded as long as you pick up the plot via subtitles is utterly stupid. (2:34–2:47)
What is Art? (Baby don't hurt me…)
If that's not enough to show you how Abdaal completely disregards art because it doesn't fit with his his worship of "ultra-productivity", Fr0nzP. cites another one of his videos, "How I Read 100 Books a Year - 8 Tips of Reading More"[9], in which he shits on classic literature and dismisses literature students as examples of people he looks down on between the lines. He further exemplifies this in his later video "How to 'Read' 1000 Books a Year" (let that title sink in for a moment). In that video, he does admittedly make a good point that it's find to not finish a book if you don't enjoy it and that you should not feel pressured by society or your peers to read something you don't want to really read. The rest of it, however, is a weird conglomeration of product placement (he namedrops brands left and right, mentioning how they're not sponsoring the video but are super amazing and life-changing) as well as advocating speed-reading and skimming — again, something that does not work well with fiction, as some of the comments underneath the video point out.
Also, if you look for a drinking game that will absolutely wreck you: take a shot every time he mentions Amazon or the Kindle in that video.
So, what books does he read and recommend then? Take a wild guess.
No, seriously, before you read on, think about the contents of this article, which is the overlap between the toxic productivity sphere and AI bros, and just try to guess one book he recommends.
Ready?
In titled "The Best Book I've Ever Read about Morality"[10] he sings the praise of "What We Owe The Future" by William MacAskill, but the video is basically a twelve-minute mental exercise in jerking off to Effective Altruism, because of course it is. We learn that Abdaal is not only a card-carrying member of EA but also donates 10% of his yearly income to it (or to charities which fit their criteria for being worthwhile).
There's also a shout-out to MacAskill on his Twitter, (fittingly after a long series of posts where he stealth-promotes ChatGPT and how it can boost your productivity), complete with a drive-by mention of AI x-risk.
To learn more about the risks of AI and other long-term risks to humanity, check out moral philosopher @willmacaskill’s excellent book What We Owe the Future. Or alternatively, check out my brief summary of the book on my YouTube channel[11]
In another video, "8 Lessons I Learned From Elon Musk"[12] Abdaal fawns over Elon and how successful he is. One of the lessons in there is ironically that "reading is the best thing ever", mentioning how Elon's idea of founding SpaceX without being an engineer or having a clue about rocket science is that he read about it. I find it quite condescending, though, to make a claim like that but put an asterisk at the end that means, but only if you read non-fiction, because otherwise you're wasting your time.
Part-Time Hustle Academy
We could leave Ali Abdaal here and focus on someone else, but I promised you above that we would return to his investment tips. Much like with his productivity-related content, he started out harmless and uncontroversial by just giving basic tips about dipping your toes into investment by checking out ETFs and not being afraid of the stock market. But also as with his other videos, his focus shifted and became stranger.
Making money is the second biggest topic on his channel, and yes, that is of course part of toxic productivity as we have established above, because everything needs to have a tangible benefit and what benefit is more tangible than actually making bank. So, he has videos about generating income streams and making more money than you peers and, of course, Bitcoin![13] In his defense, he doesn't appear to be a crypto bro at least, and he does list the controversies around Bitcoin in this video and makes some wishy-washy takes about how everyone must decide for themselves whether they want to invest in it.
But what's the end-goal of all that? What if you want to be as productive as Abdaal himself? Well, good news, there's a solution for you and it's called the "Part-Time YouTuber Academy"[14].
We’ve condensed 7+ years of YouTube experience into programmes designed to help you on your YouTube journey.
We learned lessons the hard way, so you don’t have to…
This is basically Abdaal's version of every podcasting bro's "If you want to be successful, you need to become like me!" course, and we've seen plenty of those in the last decade. So how much does this thing cost, you might ask? Well, at the time of writing the fee for Abdaal's class is $995. And if that's too expensive for you and you don't really want to make YouTube videos, he also has offers on platforms like Skillshare, like the "Productivity Masterclass", the "Notion Masterclass", "Triple Your Typing Speed" (here we go again), or "How To Cook Productively" (no, I'm not joking).[15]
Well, I don't have a thousand bucks to waste but lucky for us there are people who did and reviewed the course wo we can take a look at what it's actually like. YouTuber TyFrom99 in his video "Creator Courses: Selling Dreams as Products"[16] talks about the Part-Time YouTuber Academy. He also summarizes Abdaal's whole brand in a very concise way.
Ali is a YouTuber that has basically popularized what I like to call the "productivity cult". Almost every channel you see centered around the topic of productivity is influenced directly by Ali […]. It's clear he carved the genre out almost single-handedly. (14:35)
He also mentions that the productivity sphere is a toxic space and that it's basically a "nerdified and systematized [version of] the hustle culture that people like Andrew Tate promote" (14:57). Oh gee, maybe his content isn't that different from the likes of Andrew Tate but only flavored in a different way?
Tate sells you dreams. He sells you success. He sells you being like him, which is rich (probably) and handsome (uhh, about that…) and successful with women (wait a moment!), and the only thing you need to do for that is fork over some of your cash and subscribe to his classes. He calls his grift "Hustler's University" and apparently makes millions from it.[17] Sounds familiar?
Unlike Tate, however, Abdaal is upfront about that nothing he teaches in his course can't be found out by just searching the internet, so at least he's honest. He's selling you curated and condensed information that you would otherwise have to dig up yourself, or, in other words, he sells you time which you can use more productively. "We learned lessons the hard way, so you don't have to" indeed.
Fr0nzP., who also delves into the PTYA in his video[18] is less generous and says that "Ali makes over $130k each month, with 5–10 hours of effort each week", and argues "that giving the impression of productivity as a recipe of arriving at those numbers is dishonest and even borders on fraud" (12:33–12:47). Looking at some of the channels, he comes to the same conclusion as TyFrom99: namely, that most of the channels who took the class didn't see much success from it. Moreover, all the engagement these channels get seems to be from other people who took the class. Abdaal's quantity-over-quality approach (don't forget that in his opinion productivity just means doing more in less time) shows here, too.
Final Thoughts
So what's the takeaway of all of his? In the beginning I promised to make a point about people who are into AI and who defend this technology despite its obvious problems. It's exactly the people who are swooned by the weird takes of Ali Abdaal, who define being productive as cramming as much activity into their day as humanly possible, who don't give a rat's ass about art and don't assign value to it, and who don't view time spent recreationally as worth their while who feel drawn to the promises of Altman too. Yes, he is a podcasting bro indeed, because behind all his thinly-veiled technofascist TESCREAL talk he is selling you productivity too. ChatGPT can work for you, it can save you time, it can do the tasks you don't want to do!
What are these tasks, though? In the Culture Series by Iain M. Banks[19], one of the great science-fiction series of the modern time that deals with AI as a major cultural factor, and that's not understood by any AI bro who's read it, boring menial tasks are automated so that humanity, under the leadership of the benign AIs, can spend it's time engaging in art and things they enjoy. Altman's future has nothing of that, because none of it is of value to him. Instead, art is automated to people can work more and make more money.
It's no wonder that big companies like Adobe subscribe to this ideology and try to force it upon their customers[20], because they are invested in Altman's bubble, but who are the small people who do? The self-proclaimed "AI artists" who shout that AI democratizes art and finally makes it accessible to the masses (never mind that there's more art tutorials on YouTube than productivity shit and that there are few skills who need as little investment as art, because you can get started with a pencil you steal from IKEA and the back of your last unpaid electricity bill if you really want)?
It seems counterproductive to peddle AI as a small creator at this point when it seems as if more and more consumers are turned off by products that use it[21], but that isn't what these people see. For them, it's like Ali Abdaal's advice that you first need to vomit out 100 videos on YouTube and then can start worrying about quality. These first 100 videos, or I guess artworks in this case, would've been part of your training at any point in time prior to 2022, but now the automatic plagiarizer can make them for you in an hour, and you can put them on your portfolio and call yourself an artist. It doesn't even matter that you don't get any experience or skill from that because you are productive. Not a single artist in human history could product that many works in that short amount of time, just as no one could watch as much anime before the invention of the fast-forward button.
"Feel Good Productivity" indeed, because doesn't it feel good to have a portfolio that keeps filling itself? To have a tool that promises to make writer's block go poof? Because that, everyone, must be the future of productivity!
Or, maybe not, because normal people (you know, those who don't wanna watch their shows on 3.5x speed but actually take time and enjoy them, or who don't speed-read novels, and who don't measure the values of their lives on how much side-hustling they can do during their lunch break at work) do not seem to view the increased workload as more productive but instead find it does quite the opposite.[22]
Despite 96% of C-suite executives expecting AI to boost productivity, the study reveals that, 77% of employees using AI say it has added to their workload and created challenges in achieving the expected productivity gains. Not only is AI increasing the workloads of full-time employees, it’s hampering productivity and contributing to employee burnout.
Well, we can certainly see where the toxic productivity crowd sees themselves then, can't we?
Footnotes
https://www.techspot.com/news/104907-openai-sam-altman-dismissed-podcasting-bro-tsmc-over.html ↩︎
https://old.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/i2pcva/ali_abdaal_how_i_watch_tv_productively/ ↩︎
https://www.iain-banks.net/landing-page/iain-banks/iain-banks-books/ ↩︎
https://80.lv/articles/adobe-says-artists-should-embrace-ai-if-they-want-to-be-successful/ ↩︎
https://futurism.com/the-byte/study-consumers-turned-off-products-ai ↩︎
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/07/23/employees-report-ai-increased-workload/ ↩︎
Good change, I think, but maybe “alleviate” is too weak a word when combined with “promises”. I feel like the claptrap that influencers are selling would be better captured by a more emphatic line, like “magic away writer’s block” or “make writer’s block go poof”.
Oh, that is so much better, thanks for the suggestion. I reworked the whole paragraph to follow that tone and it does work much better and feels less clunky.