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Why do we work so hard?

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Re: Why do we work so hard?

#111

Post by mirimir »

jrcii wrote: post #62
burgessaccount wrote: post #35

This will sound moralistic, and I don't mean it that way, but I think this relates to our general lack of clear values as a society. With religion absent in many people's lives, not much has stepped in to take up the slack and say "what really matters is being a good person" or "what really matters is wisdom" or "what really matters is family". So we're left with the messages we ARE getting, which are from a combinat…

>This will sound moralistic, and I don't mean it that way It's truly sad that the culture of people in computing reading this forum, which reflects the nation and west as a whole, is so disconnected from God that you feel the need to disclaim the profession of morality or religion.

No, what's truly sad is that I'm too old to have any shot at being a god. So it goes.

Re: Why do we work so hard?

#112

Post by yugai »

There are a lot of hard work being done that is personally rewarding (money and fame) and either meaningless or destructive in a broader sense (ecological destruction, social destruction, unethical activites, fraud). Lehman brothers were very successful and was greatly rewarded before the financial crash.

Re: Why do we work so hard?

#113

Post by justinjlynn »

zendotech wrote: post #56
justinjlynn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have just described what is easily fifty thousand USD worth of equipment.

I think you mean 500K$ usd, used.

At that point, there isn't much difference in terms of affordability for your average person.

Re: Why do we work so hard?

#115

Post by throw192831 »

kyllo wrote: post #73
nostrademons wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, it's that folks who get their values from other folks are the only ones who bother to tell other folks how well they're doing at achieving their externally-gifted values. If your goal is to make a lot of money but you decided that was just your goal, why bother to tell anyone you've achieved it? (Indeed, it can be very counterproductive to tell other people.) If your goal is to be a good husband & father, then w…

Because there's a bit of a feedback loop with success. If others see you as being successful or impressive (on whatever axis they care about), this attracts them to you, and having a more admirers increases your social power and influence, which gives you more opportunities and better chances of success in your future efforts. This also explains patio11's formula for career success, which is basically: 10 Make someth…

patio11's value system is not the one nostrademons was talking about...

Re: Why do we work so hard?

#116

Post by dood »

erikb wrote: post #104

I like the explanation, but I don't like the idea of telling everybody that things where different in the past. When most people were farmers they also worked more than 12 hours a day, since you need to take care of such a big place. When most people were factory workers people also worked more than 12 hours because the boss thought it would make him more money if you worked more (and with simple, mechanical work tha…

Things were different in the past. Most people's lives involved far more leisure than today, for long stretches of the medieval period. source: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_w...

Re: Why do we work so hard?

#117

Post by stevedonovan »

cossatot wrote: post #92
Animats wrote: post #80

Competition. It's not that we really have to work that hard to produce a product or service. It's that we have to work really hard to beat the other people trying to do the same thing. Increased productivity doesn't help, because everybody is still running flat out to compete, at a higher level.

Don't you like rabbit holes? Chasing the weird or subtle or ill-defined phenomena that no one else cares about and will probably lead nowhere but just smells so damn good ?

Many of us are like Jack Russells in that way ;)

Re: Why do we work so hard?

#118

Post by ahmedk92 »

rodgerd wrote: post #61
burgessaccount wrote: post #35

This will sound moralistic, and I don't mean it that way, but I think this relates to our general lack of clear values as a society. With religion absent in many people's lives, not much has stepped in to take up the slack and say "what really matters is being a good person" or "what really matters is wisdom" or "what really matters is family". So we're left with the messages we ARE getting, which are from a combinat…

> With religion absent in many people's lives, not much has stepped in to take up the slack Given the obsession with hard (in fact over-) work in the English-speaking world and European north tends to be commonly treated as an artifact of the "Protestant work ethic" this seems pretty off-base.

Islam's view on work is balanced. Simply it's a mean to live financially independent, not a life purpose. This idea can be seen in the commitment to the five must-be-on-time prayers during the day. No work should cause the prayers to be postponed.

Ironically, through the last century, there is a "modern" Islamic speech that preaches "hard work ethics" (the western way) among other western values. It will be funny if the west starts to morally rethink their life style, while the Islamic world is about to complete the low-morale modernization process.

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