If you watch productivity videos on YouTube—like this one—you’ll often see gurus seeking the “one” “ultimate” “system” that makes them successful, earns more money, and saves the most time. I like productivity videos. I like the apps, the journals, the videos’ aesthetic. I recently bought the Ultimate Second-brain System for Notion by Thomas Frank. I want order from chaos. The more I think about it, the more I realize everyone wants to create order from chaos. It’s human nature.
The one ultimate system to manage your time, thoughts, or whatever else is a very old idea. Plato had his theory of forms, Benedict had his rule, Aquinas had his Summa Theologica, Jung had his archetypes, Einstein had his general theory, and so on. Each of these was an attempt to explain how the world works from a particular perspective. It’s an attempt to, in the words of Genesis, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
Recently, I came across this word that framed the concept for me. Richard Wagner used it to describe his work. But I think it could also describe Steve Jobs’ vision for Apple products, the latest trends in marketing, or Ray Dalio’s economic theory about “How the economic machine works.” I see it in the quest for the one productivity app to rule them all. (Interestingly, one of Wagner’s most famous compositions, Der Ring das Nibelungen, was about a ring of gold, forged by a dwarf, that was said to give whoever wielded it the power to rule the world. His most famous song, “The Flight of the Valkyries,” comes from its second act.)
The word is Gesamtkunstwerk, which translates to “total work of art.”
Steve Jobs had a strong vision for not only how Apple products should function but also how they should feel. He cared for the most intimate details of the products he made. He was obsessed with typography, craving to make even the tiniest letterforms of his pieces absolutely perfect. To him, his products were total works of art. They should be one thing, with one, singular vision bringing all the myriad pieces into harmony. Wagner felt the same about his operas.
Anyone who cares about their craft cares about how it all works together. They want to reduce their cognitive load and think efficiently about whatever it is they’re doing, bringing all of it under one, unifying vision, whether politicians, product designers, or productivity gurus.
In marketing, that vision is a holistic theory of the customer journey. This is the holy grail, labeled “the customer experience.” One VP of growth said in an interview that the days of marketers looking at only this or that metric, regardless of the business’s overall strategy, are over. Marketers need to craft “human” and “data-driven” experiences for every touchpoint during which the customer engages the brand, from a billboard, to social media, to experiencing the product itself.
The problem is that there is no such data.
Humans experience an infinite range of emotions, interactions, thoughts, desires, and fears. We have an infinite number of reasons for why we did this or that. There’s often no reason at all, or at least not one that we’re conscious of. Even if we did have that data, it would likely be wrong, or it would be wrong about predicting what will happen next, which is what really matters in business.
Yet we crave a unifying theory to explain everything or a vision through which we create our work, our Gesamtkunstwerk. I want my Notion productivity app to take notes, send emails, cross off to-dos, mark my calendar, maybe even care for my new baby girl Camille. Who knows what technology is capable of these days, right? I just want one thing to look at on my screen during the day, instead of the dozen apps I have open at all times.
More broadly, I want one, unifying theory for why I’m working at all. So many papers I write for clients discuss what “engages” employees. Some say it’s “purpose”: If employees simply understood how the mission of the organization aligns with their personal mission in life, they’d be fulfilled, engaged, satisfied, productive. Cue all the rage for “purpose-driven” organizations that “do well by doing good.”
Again, there is no such purpose that unifies thousands of individuals in such a way, least of all selling software or services or sacks of potatoes. The most business leaders can do is make the mission clear and make the activities to achieve that mission efficient. Even the loftiest purpose-driven organizations like the global church or the Red Cross or the UN are rife with division and war. However, a friend of mine defended his dissertation on the theory that the human mission is to make Earth fit for the place of God, and I think there’s something to that.
Despite all that, I’m becoming increasingly interested in finding a unifying vision for my day, whether I spend time with family, working, writing, or whatever else I’m doing. I want a rule of life, an idea on which I can hang my other ideas.
In the words of the philosopher Bobby Boucher, “the soich continues.”