Why is everyone so busy? (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#61

Post by api » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:15 PM UTC

hliyan wrote: post #53

I'm of the opinion that the root of the problem is inflation (but I'm open to correction). My thinking is that we're constantly being pushed to work harder because no business today can reach a successful steady-state -- it must keep growing. The reason businesses must keep growing is that investors demand it. Investors demand it because they believe that wealth sitting around not making more wealth is a waste. Infla…

If we kept inflation close to zero (or negative) wealth would tend to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands, and the bias would be toward idle rentiers. People like property landlords would get unbelievably rich by collecting mandatory continuous rent payments. Since deflating currency holds or increases in value they'd have zero incentive to do anything with it other than hoard it. Eventually you end up with a landed nobility.

Add to this the fact that deflating currency makes loans hard to service and biases the lending market toward default. This further decreases the incentive for those with a lot of currency to lend it since the probability of losing it to default becomes higher.

The ideal is probably a little bit of inflation. I think it's possible that we have too much, and that we are misinformed about that because we are measuring the wrong things. I'm not positive but I seem to remember that the CPI does not include things like rent and college tuition, which if true is utterly insane and makes it a bogus statistic.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#62

Post by api » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:18 PM UTC

XR0CSWV3h3kZWg wrote: post #55

hliyan wrote: post #53

I'm of the opinion that the root of the problem is inflation (but I'm open to correction). My thinking is that we're constantly being pushed to work harder because no business today can reach a successful steady-state -- it must keep growing. The reason businesses must keep growing is that investors demand it. Investors demand it because they believe that wealth sitting around not making more wealth is a waste. Infla…

I agree that there are likely negative social consequences from inflation, but the idea that inflation is the reason a business can't reach a steady-state because of inflation seems to ignore Red Queen[1] like affects. Something I've noticed a lot in tech is that companies will spend a huge amount of money to push new features that aren't core to the business and to launch new products that frequently fail. I've alwa…

No idea why you are being downvoted. A Red Queen's Race is exactly what's going on. Even without much currency inflation there is constant pressure for businesses to outgrow each other because... well... everyone else is doing it! It's exactly like the constant arms race that occurs between nations and forces them to constantly spend trillions of dollars on weapons that will mostly never be used.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#63

Post by api » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:21 PM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #26

This "must be busy" mindset and 50+ hour work weeks is so utterly alien and wrong to me, and I'm glad I feel this way. I would never let a job get in the way of family and social experiences, in the way of my life . Relaxation and leisure time is absolutely non-negotiable for me, I would never give up on a concert or culinary experience or anything else for something as mundane as work. I think this mindset has also…

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread part of it is economic but part of it is also a macho business culture that views overwork as a status symbol. It's really bad in some professions. If we think engineers and tech businesspeople have it bad talk to an architect.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#64

Post by codetrotter » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:25 PM UTC

XR0CSWV3h3kZWg wrote: post #55

hliyan wrote: post #53

I'm of the opinion that the root of the problem is inflation (but I'm open to correction). My thinking is that we're constantly being pushed to work harder because no business today can reach a successful steady-state -- it must keep growing. The reason businesses must keep growing is that investors demand it. Investors demand it because they believe that wealth sitting around not making more wealth is a waste. Infla…

I agree that there are likely negative social consequences from inflation, but the idea that inflation is the reason a business can't reach a steady-state because of inflation seems to ignore Red Queen[1] like affects. Something I've noticed a lot in tech is that companies will spend a huge amount of money to push new features that aren't core to the business and to launch new products that frequently fail. I've alwa…

You forgot to include the link you were going to reference.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#65

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:30 PM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #26

This "must be busy" mindset and 50+ hour work weeks is so utterly alien and wrong to me, and I'm glad I feel this way. I would never let a job get in the way of family and social experiences, in the way of my life . Relaxation and leisure time is absolutely non-negotiable for me, I would never give up on a concert or culinary experience or anything else for something as mundane as work. I think this mindset has also…

[deleted]

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#66

Post by musage » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:31 PM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #23

fwn wrote: post #21

I'm not sure their psychological/cultural reasons translate very well to continental europe. The people that surround me in Germany have all the time they want. Besides that: > No one has ever complained of having too much of it. Isn't that just being bored? I'm sure I've heard people complaining about that.

I think people who complain about being bored are simply scared of being alone with their thoughts. I don't mind doing "nothing" on a train or bus ride, it gives me time to slow down a little and just think to myself. I think this "gotta be busybusybusy" thing originated in the US, but it is definitely spreading. I see way too many people who are way too wrapped up in their careers or are constantly stressing about a…

> Well, apart from bureaucracy being anonymous in essence, every restless activity makes responsibility evaporate. There is an idiomatic expression in English: "stop and think". No person can think without stopping [first]. When you force someone into a restless activity, or they let themselves be forced into it, you will always have the same result. You will always have the problem that a sense of responsibility cannot form. It can only form in the moment in which one reflects -- not about oneself, but about what one is doing.

-- Hannah Arendt (translation me, original here http://www.hannaharendt.net/index.php/han/article/view/114/1... , audio here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_UvHhbZIA )

And now for something completely different:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOjo2ggPRKE

Less isn't just sometimes more, and more isn't just sometimes less. Sometimes it's something else entirely: sometimes a little less is everything, and a little more is nothing.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#67

Post by phkahler » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:32 PM UTC

NPMaxwell wrote: post #47

LandR wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Unfortunately, they closed our office and moved a lot of the work offshore. As an aside, I did have a little laugh a year after they let us all go, it came out in the news that they missed a LOT of SLAs that next year and it potentially cost them millions.

I know of one company that keeps track of layoffs at a single multinational, and hires all of the engineers who get laid off. Inevitably, the company seeks out the laid-off engineers to hire them back and has to hire them as consultants. This only works off of companies with this style of management.

Possible plot twist: One of the C-levels or their friend owns the company that rents the engineers back. In other words it's not a dumb business decision, but a way to line someones pockets at the expense of a public company.

This is just my creative imagination, I'm not jaded.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#68

Post by terrytrend » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

factsaresacred wrote: post #20

I recommend people watch Japan A story of love and hate ( http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x56bwzc ) which, aside from being a great look at Japan, epitomizes the absurdity of exchanging our time for a salary that increasingly fails to cover the cost to live and leaves us without free time. 30,000 Japanese kill themselves each year due to work related stress. Great quote from the doc: Naoki:"You (the West) game me th…

On the money. Fuck the 9-5 corporate work life.

I've been doing this everyday for 12 years..and I'm about to blow my brains out.

I encourage everyone to find one thing they love and find a way to do it everyday for the rest of your life.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#69

Post by KozmoNau7 » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:39 PM UTC

psyc wrote: post #56

marak830 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the same as you, alas I cannot afford not to work the hours I do (for which I have copped quite a bit of flack on HN about). I do wonder why people who can afford to spend time with their family and not work 60-70 hours per week, actually do. I can only imagine it would be that they really enjoy their work that much, or their in a culture such as here in Japan where you stay until the boss leaves - or else. (Not…

I'm terrified of letting people into my life, and the biggest reason is I'm afraid they'll cut into my work time. Now, sure, there's probably a bunch of Freudian damage that's gone into this. But however I got this way, I am this way, and I don't mind.

I couldn't imagine living like that, with no room for friends and leisure.

Re: Why is everyone so busy? (2014)

#70

Post by omalleyt » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

Societies compete with each other like organisms. Successful societies propagate. Primary dimensions of competition are demographics, economics, and military. Thus the history of social organization is necessarily a history of extracting ever-more value from the labor of society's members.

Keynes and others seem to have labored under the delusion that the history of social organization is a history of ever-increasing happiness for society's members.