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I fairly commonly read about the notion of certain products or even entire classes of devices being "unsuitable for productivity", or a similar wording meaning roughly the same. This is a wonderfully bizarre creation, in my mind, as nobody ever bothers telling the reader just what the definition of "productivity" actually is. Is productivity some universal, well known measure that applies to all people, everywhere, all the time, regardless of what they are trying to do? Or is it just another word tossed around in attempts at being elitist in ones own field?

Looking at it for what it is, productivity is just being able to do what you need in an, time-wise, efficient manner. While I can see some things being stupidly hard to do with some machines, it's far more subjective than what a lot of articles and people would let you know. Nowadays I see it as a sign of good mental health and a well adjusted view of the market any company is aiming at with how few times they mention anything regarding productivity.

I've already written at length about how the iPad is very much a device for creativity and creative work, but despite all the apps available for it some would say it's not a device for productivity. Odd, isn't it? If you can do your work in a timely manner, surely it would be productive, right? Alas, no. This would not be how productivity is defined in many places.

The code, I believe, has been cracked and what they mean when they say "productivity" is nothing other than "runs Microsoft Office". That's it! Productivity = Office. How a suite of software has come to define a concept like this I have no idea, but the possibility of brainwashing is entirely within the scope of plausibility.

With really narrow perception of computing and reality itself, I guess the connection could makes sense, in some small way. But by and large this is just stupidity bordering on insanity. Productivity comes not from being able to start applications most people don't need, due to their sheer size and feature set, but rather to be able to write if you need writing, calculate if you need calculations and make slides for your presentation. Last time I checked, all those three were very realistic to do on nearly any device currently sold today.

People have written books on their mobile phones, run businesses off of their laptops, and done presentations with their tablet computers for some time. Productivity, when it is talked about as a goal for any computational device, would appear to only come from writing things in Word, making spreadsheets in Excel and crafting another presentation in Powerpoint. A great testament to the lack of critical thinking about the tools we use, the definition of concepts and how well Microsoft as managed to brainwash millions of people around the globe.

Robert Falck

Robert is a freelance tech writer from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on the British Tech Network, listen to him yap away on the British Tech iOS Show and read even more of his stuff on his site streakmachine.com or you can even follow him on twitter @streakmachine. (But you won't find him on Facebook!)

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Robert Falck

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