https://signal-and-syntax.com/tags/productivity/Recent content in Productivity on Signal & SyntaxHugoen-usThu, 28 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0700https://signal-and-syntax.com/posts/meeting-diet/Thu, 28 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0700https://signal-and-syntax.com/posts/meeting-diet/Every week your calendar fills with more meeting invites than you can reasonably handle. Which ones are worth the time and energy, and which should you politely decline? What if there was a way to quantify that choice? The good news: math can help. By modeling your schedule as a 0/1 knapsack problem with two constraints ( Kellerer et al., 2004 ), you can treat meetings like items with value, time cost, and energy cost.https://signal-and-syntax.com/posts/tfp-chatgpt/Tue, 19 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0700https://signal-and-syntax.com/posts/tfp-chatgpt/If ChatGPT can write code, summarize legal briefs, and help draft business strategies in seconds, why doesn’t that show up in our productivity statistics? Economists have long relied on a metric called Total Factor Productivity (TFP) to measure technological progress. But in an era of free digital tools and generative AI, TFP looks more like a rearview mirror than a windshield. It tells us a lot about the past, but almost nothing about where the economy is headed.