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My suspect is distraction. People used to be able to deep work regularly.

That's a pretty optimistic view. My recollection is more along the lines of lots of phone calls and people stopping by your office on a regular basis.

Revolutionary Road was released at the tail end of 1962 and has some stuff to say about office work. If it's accurate (I suspect it's pretty close) then it was largely about passing papers around trying to avoid having to actually do anything with them, without it looking like you're trying to avoid doing anything.

Very similar to modern corporate email, sending crap around forever and bringing in more "eyes" trying to avoid making a decision or—god forbid—actually personally doing real work that produces an actual good.

[EDIT] tail end of 1961, actually, got that wrong.

My point was more that the people are also highly distracted by people around them who are also constantly distracted and thus buzzing, usually because of social media. The only solution is to go away, but then you're not seen in a good light.

I don't know if you are correct in a 'global productivity sense'. I do know that it's quite common for me to get more 'real work' done on the train on the 30 minute journey to work than in the rest of the day.

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