When it comes to qualities exhibited by the human race, many are admired, such as courage, kindness, and responsibility. And for good reason. Yet there is one that seems less cited, possibly even taken for granted, given its sheer contribution to our collective survival and well-being; that is, the human capacity to produce.
It seems obvious to say that everything we need or want must be produced. Food, shelter, clothing, furniture, medicine, means of communication and transport, information, technology, works of art and entertainment – none exists in a useable form in nature and most require long, complex endeavors to bring into existence. Even plants and animals must be grown and harvested, and fuel must be discovered, acquired, and distributed – especially on the scale required to serve a global population of billions. To browse Amazon, shop at a Mall, or even walk the aisles of a grocery store is to experience but a sample of the wealth available to us and on which we depend. Add to this the numerous services in the form of knowledge, information, ideas, and performances provided by teachers, medical professionals, financial advisers, technicians, entertainers, athletes, and many others, and the picture is astonishing. Not to mention ever expanding. What is available to us today was not a century ago. What was available to us then was not a century before that. Given both the volume of goods and services, and the extent to which we rely upon them, it seems appropriate to describe our capacity to produce as one of our most notable and outstanding qualities.
To “produce,” according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is “to give birth or rise to,” “to cause to have existence or to happen,” “to compose, create, or bring out by intellectual or physical effort”; and to be “productive” is to be “effective in bringing about.” It is a powerful and expansive quality, one that is related to but not the same as being “creative” or “innovative”: someone may be very productive without conceiving of or creating anything novel.
When you think of productive people, what do you envision? Making things happen? Getting a lot done? Prodigious efforts or skill? For those individuals, groups, or nations who are especially good at it, what explains their success – what habits of thought and action, what kinds of traits and relationships, what manner of laws? To the extent that we can generalize, what practices or policies might support or undermine them?
This blog, presuming a need for us to understand, encourage, promote, and even celebrate productiveness, will raise and explore such questions.
Good thoughts and insights! And I wish I still had my horseshoe nail ring from Sturbridge Village.