What happens when a word loses most of its meaning?

Here’s an intriguing thought from Andre, who writes the blog ‘Tools For Thought’ (“Questioning My Assumptions: Productivity as an Amoeba Word”).

He writes:

I’m over productivity. It’s outlived its usefulness as a focal point and framework for meaningful discussion.
 
Through overuse and misuse, productivity has become an amoeba word, a term whose meaning can morph to any usage the speaker or writer chooses by changing its frame of expectation. Productivity joins the ranks of words like “success,” “spirituality,” and “growth” to mean whatever the person using them decides they mean in the moment.

I couldn’t agree more. Productivity means doing more with the same, or less, resources. That’s it. It doesn’t mean “getting things done” — unless the way you do them meets the criterion I just mentioned. It doesn’t mean simply doing more — especially if you do so by ‘consuming’ more time, energy and effort. Working longer hours doesn’t make you more productive. It just makes you tired. You may produce more — if you don’t, how are you spending all that extra time — but your productivity (the ratio of output to input) stays the same or even falls.

This isn’t about the English language. It’s about seeing, thinking and speaking clearly — something too few people devote much time to today.

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