I had a discussion with a German LW'er who described how "productivity" and things generally targeted towards productivity are frowned upon because the in-group condition in the culture is that "you already got that shit covered". So telling someone to be more productive was like saying, "you are not productive enough right now". And doing so was discouraged. Makes it hard to say why LW is good if you have to avoid the word productivity (and similar words)
I think it would be more fitting to say that while productivity is more like a terminal value in the US with the American dream it's not a terminal value in Germany to the same extend.
Makes it hard to say why LW is good if you have to avoid the word productivity
That seems to me to be flawed reasoning. LW is not good at getting it's members to be productive given that a lot of them suffer from akrasia.
On the other hand LW is good at getting people to have sophisticated intellectual views on issues. That's more valued in Germany than it is in the US.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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