Ideas beyond the obvious.
Unproductively is an independent ideas and culture publication exploring the questions, perspectives and forces shaping how we think, work, create and live. It questions assumptions, connects disciplines, examines systems and makes room for perspectives that are often overlooked.
War Spoils or Debris?
Did We Make the Most of Afrobeats?
The Forces Behind Product Decisions
Why Every Designer Should Start Thinking Like a PM
Why it exists
What holds it together is not a subject but a habit of mind: questioning assumptions, connecting ideas, examining systems and exploring perspectives that are often overlooked.
An essay on African society can sit next to one on music, economics, organisational behaviour or technology, because the same kind of attention can be brought to all of them.
We don’t believe every conversation needs a definitive answer. We believe better questions lead to better thinking.
Not a technology publication, a business blog or a startup platform. A place to read carefully, think out loud and disagree well.
Why “Unproductively”
Most of what we read now is asked to be useful at once: a takeaway, a hack, a next step. The name is a small refusal. It stands for the freedom to follow an idea without first proving it will pay off, because the thinking that matters most rarely announces its use in advance.
That isn’t a case against work or ambition; plenty of essays here are about both. It’s a case for giving ideas the time they need.
Questions we keep asking
Read the essays- What did a billion-dollar valuation change for ordinary people?
- Who captures the value a continent creates?
- Why does confidence so often arrive before competence?
- Did we make the most of Afrobeats?
- What does a democracy owe the people it claims to represent?
- When should we step back and think, and when should we stay where we are?
Independent, and open
Unproductively is an independent publication. Its subjects and its conclusions are set by the people who write for it, not by advertisers or platforms.
It is African in its perspectives without being limited by geography, and it publishes writers who disagree with one another. What we ask of every essay is care: a real question, honestly pursued.
What we cover
Subjects are a way to browse, not walls.
Society & Culture
How people live together: communities, identity, African societies and the cultures that shape how we see the world.
Philosophy & Ideas
Questions of meaning, knowledge, ethics and human behaviour, and the ideas that quietly organise our lives.
Economics & Politics
Markets, money, power and public policy, and who gains and who loses from the choices societies make.
Work & Organisations
Business, institutions and organisational behaviour: how people decide, build and work together.
Art & Creativity
Music, art, design and the creative process, and what making things reveals about the people who make them.
Technology & Innovation
How new tools and products change the way we live and work, and what is gained and lost along the way.
What comes next
Hear first when they beginUnproductively begins with essays. Conversations, video, gatherings and a community will follow.
Write with us
If you have an idea worth taking slowly, whatever your field, your perspective belongs here.
Or write to unproductivelyy@outlook.com
Image and film credits
- War Spoils or Debris?. The National Assembly, Abuja. Photograph: Kabusa16, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Did We Make the Most of Afrobeats?. Davido performing. Photograph: Rasheedhrasheed, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- The Forces Behind Product Decisions. Market Movements. Film: Ayorinde Ogundele, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Why Every Designer Should Start Thinking Like a PM. A working session after a brainstorm. Photograph: Kabusa16, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Reading Doesn’t Think For You. You Still Have To.. Library reading room, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Photograph: Maarten van Dis, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Payment as a Feature vs Payment as a Product. A mobile money kiosk. Photograph: Bukulu Steven, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Nigeria’s Trillion-Dollar Mirage. Customers queue to deposit old naira notes, 2023. Photograph: Ola.abbey2023, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Billion-Dollar Companies, Ordinary Lives. A POS agent’s stand, Nigeria. Photograph: Bigkotech, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Thinking About Thinking. Lagos Lagoon at dusk. Photograph: Obii Okongwu, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- The Richest Man Alive Is Not a Finish Line. Lagos Island and Victoria Island. Photograph: Ayorinde Ogundele, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Pax Africana. Artisanal cobalt miners, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photograph: International Institute for Environment and Development, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5).
- The Dunning-Kruger Effect: Why Confidence Often Peaks Before Competence. A panel discussion at WikiConference Nigeria 2024. Photograph: Inyor4mr, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
- Mo Iwọn Ara Rẹ. An aso-oke weaver. Photograph: Toyinvisuals, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Bread and Circuses: Nigeria's Convenient Amnesia. An empty classroom. Photograph: Danslafrique, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- The People Who Learned the Floor Can Disappear. Malcolm X, 1964. Photograph: Ed Ford, New York World-Telegram, via the Library of Congress (public domain).
- Why Democracy Is Flawed. Voters queue at Pantami, Gombe, during the 2023 general election. Photograph: Iyusuf615, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- “Sometimes I Feel Like I Am Spinning Plates and the Plates Are About to Fall. But Somehow, They Don’t Fall.”. Shooting a music video in Lagos. Photograph: Josephola, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Love Is the Original Act of Imagination. An Edo couple in traditional dress. Photograph: Kaizenify, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- To understand, you first have to misunderstand.. A secondary school computer class. Photograph: James Rhoda, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- From Baby to Father in the Faith. Cathedral Chapel of Revival. Photograph: Confidence24, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Society & Culture. The crowd as Burna Boy performs at Nativeland, Lagos. Photograph: Catherine Omeresan Sutherland, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Philosophy & Ideas. Mpape lake, Abuja. Film: Muhammad09069, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Economics & Politics. A stock exchange trading floor. Photograph: S. Aderogba, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Work & Organisations. A software developer at work. Photograph: Daudi Mukiibi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Art & Creativity. Afriart Gallery at Art X Lagos 2022, with work by Sungi Mlengeya and Henry Mzili Mujunga. Photograph: Cinnamon aag23, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Technology & Innovation. A Zipline delivery drone lands in a night rainstorm, Rwanda. Photograph: Roksenhorn, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Video. Daily Hustle: Abuja Transportation Story. Film: Haramainshots, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Events. Femi Amele speaks at the CJID conference on AI in media. Photograph: ChiefAfrica, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Community. A TechHer workshop for women in technology, Abuja. Photograph: Kaizenify, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).