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What's the Point?

2026-05-18 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 4:17 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness, Goals, purpose and life design) · mode: Personal story · tags: Feel-Good Productivity thesis, His own products discussed

Catching himself playing God of War efficiently and then designing his team's app frantically, Ali asks what the point is and answers that, like a video game, the point of work and goals is mostly to enjoy the journey; approaching the app playfully, he made good progress, the thesis of his book Feel-Good Productivity, though play is still not his default.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Playing God of War: why play a video game efficiently?

  • ★★ Playing God of War (2018) on the PS5, Ali notices his default thought is to take the route that moves the main story along faster, and asks why he feels the need to play a video game efficiently. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali concludes that the point of playing God of War is simply to enjoy the journey: it has no cosmic significance and is not an exercise in self-improvement, so he takes the side quest. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Designing the team's productivity app in a rush, and asking what the point of building it is

  • ★★ The next morning, working in the office on designs for his team's new productivity app with only a few hours of deep work before meetings, Ali feels on edge and frantic, as if running out of time. — 00:00:58 · Superfocus
  • ★★★ Asking what the point of building his team's productivity app is, Ali notes it has zero cosmic significance and will be forgotten within decades, and realises that, as with a video game, the point is mainly to enjoy building it. — 00:01:56 · Superfocus
  • ★★★ Instead of working with franticness or stress, Ali chooses to take a breath, lean back, relax and treat building his team's app as an arbitrary video game whose main goal is to enjoy the challenge. — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Working in play mode; the thesis of Feel-Good Productivity; play is still not his default

  • ★★ Working on the app designs in this relaxed way, with his study-with-me playlist on and coffee breaks, Ali makes a lot of progress, comes up with cool new ideas and has a good time. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ The first chapter of Ali's book Feel-Good Productivity is titled Play; the book's thesis is that approaching work in the spirit of play makes us more productive, more creative and less stressed. — 00:02:55 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), play, power, people, feel-good productivity (concept)
  • ★★ Though he wrote the chapter on play, Ali still defaults to treating work as serious and to be done quickly and efficiently; he has got a bit better at catching this and switching to play mode, but it is not yet his default. (hedged) — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Ali would love to approach practically every goal or project in work and life with lightness, ease and sincerity rather than heaviness and seriousness. — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — Every goal as an arbitrary video game: the journey is the destination

  • ★★★ Ali wonders whether every goal in work, health, relationships and home life is an arbitrary video game played to enjoy the journey, so that the journey is the destination, which he admits is a classic cliché. (hedged) — 00:03:53 · journey before destination

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked for more casual videos about his life, Ali replies that he is reluctant to share too much about his life because he wants his videos to be useful. — creator comment

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Mentioned

Central: God of War · play, power, people

Also: Feel-Good Productivity (book) · journey before destination · PlayStation 5 · Superfocus

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