Why Productivity Is Failing Us

Creativity strategist Natalie Nixon offers a new framework for generating new ideas: Move. Think. Rest.

Sep 08, 2025

Ever since

first suggested the tagline back in 2018, I’ve know exactly what Hello Monday is meant to be about: “The changing nature of work, and how that work is changing us.”

But really, “Change” feels like too small a word for what's going on right now. It feels more like work—and specifically, office culture—is breaking, doesn't it?

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As LLMs infuse every facet of our lives, we’re left floundering for what is defensible in our chosen careers. At the same time, we must perform our current jobs better and faster than ever, continually proving our relevance to our corporate leaders. This productivity theater may result in ever more Slack messages and Friday emails summarizing our accomplishments, but are we really making progress?

Are we creating new things that we’re proud of, and they improve the state of human existence for everyone? Or we suffering from the chronic burn out that surfaces when we can no longer tie our daily actions to larger meaning?

The old models of productivity were built for a different era.

They were designed to tell us what progress looked like during the Industrial Revolution, when our worth was measured in widgets produced and output per minute. That model doesn't align with work as it exists today. I'm not telling you something you don't know.

It we don't rethink work, the system won't just bend. It will break, and that break will start with us.

My guest today is

Natalie Nixon

. She is a creativity strategist and author of the new book, "Move. Think. Rest." Natalie says the old models of productivity don’t work anymore. To thrive, we need a new orientation. She offers up the MTR framework:

1️⃣ Move — Our bodies aren’t built to sit still all day. Movement fuels energy, focus, and imagination.
2️⃣ Think — We need space for deep reflection, not just constant reaction. True insight requires pause.
3️⃣ Rest — Rest isn’t wasted time. It’s where recovery, perspective, and creativity take root.

You can find the full episode here:

A quandary…

Several people have told me they’ve replied to this newsletter and I have not gotten those replies. So if you’ve made it this far, will you help me figure out if replies are working properly? Will you hit reply and say hello? One-word replies are fine. (But if you really want to be helpful, you can hit reply and tell me where in Brooklyn to find an Elvis Tribute Artist willing to perform next month at a seven-year-old’s birthday party.)

🤓 Worth it…

A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. - by Kashmir Hill (The New York Times)

Adam Raine was 16. He loved basketball, anime, video games, and dogs. He was a funny. Last April, he killed himself. In the weeks that followed, his parents discovered that Adam had been confiding in ChatGPT about his despair. Kashmir reports on the family’s decision to sue OpenAI. The article includes chat transcript excerpts that deserve scrutiny.

AI Safety: What went right? - LinkedIn post by Sean White

Inflection AI CEO Sean White calls out a paper from Northeastern University’s Responsible AI Practice, which tested leading AI systems on questions of self-harm and suicide. Yes, he’s calling attention to the fact that Inflection’s AI’s conversational chatbot, PI AI, did not. What stands out to me is the principles he offers for how his company thinks about designing this powerful technology. Among them: “We reinforce that AI is just a machine, not a human. AI should never represent itself as human.”

The Futile Search for the Bullsh*t-Less Job by

Anne Helen Petersen

(Culture Study)

Among the most thoughtful writers on the current state of work, Anne looks at her own career. She’s a Substack winner, a gifted thinker who left the corporate grind for freelance life and was wildly successful. She’s living the dream! At least one sort of dream. And…even she doesn’t trust it: “After years of navigating failing industries and labor exploitation, I finally have total control. I know exactly what I do, and who I do it for, and why I do it. I have almost entirely rid my workday of bullshit. But because nothing about the larger system itself has changed, I can have all that control — a seemingly perfect job! — and operate, every day, in total fear.”

The Vibe Coders are lying to you by

Suff Syed

(future(memo))

Code is commoditizing, as everyone who is working anywhere near software knows. Suff explains why that doesn’t mean everyone can build great software—and he digs into why. “The story of the next eighteen months is consolidation—of spending, skills, and patience. The winners won't resemble influencers; they'll look like operators. People who aren’t ‘vibe coding’ but ‘context engineering.’”

What’s this newsletter about again?

I’ve spent 20+ years covering tech from the inside for BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Wired. My mission is to close the gap between the people building the future—and those of us living it.