Live data from Hacker News

The weekend is 100 years old

theguardian.com

101–110 of 171 posts

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With the shift to AI, it could happen. You'll work more and they'll pocket the difference, as it's been the case for every advances in the last 50 years. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQGj_oQ...

Do they? With AI agents, I work less , not more. The difference is it's off the books. On paper I seem to work the same but not in practice. I've gone from 40 hour work weeks to maybe 2 or 3 hours a day pushing some prompts. Someday, it might be 2 or 3 hours a week.

Not everyone is a techie working from home with chill managers. Most people still have to clock in the office every single day, llms just make them take more work. Let's see how it goes in term of burnouts

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while the seven day week is arbitrary, it is also worth noting that the French Revolution had experimented with a metric ten day week, which ended up being a total bust because laborers only got one week in ten of rest rather than one in seven.

The Soviets had a 5 day week between the two world wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar

“One of the five days was randomly assigned to each worker as their day of rest; the purpose of this system was to allow factories to operate every day, always having most of its workers present to maintain production.” I can see why that didn’t last long—part of the appeal of the weekend is being able to spend one’s time off with family and friends.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#103

The 7 day week is completely artificial. Days exist, defined by the rotation of the Earth. Months exist, defined by the orbit of the moon. Seasons exist, defined by the solstices and equinoxes. Years exist, defined by the orbit of the Earth. Pretty much everything else is an invention of man.

May I refer you to timecube?

https://www.timecube.net/

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#104

For the elders here, what are the actual ways to not live under the rule of an industrial clock? I’m not talking about starting your own company get rich quick scheme or moving into the woods (unless..), but really, I don’t see many ways about it. You could move somewhere rural, lower expenses, but then you are socially isolated to an extent. So, move to where people are, oh but then the only way to support the lifes…

You guys get a weekend?

Rough data according to chatgpt: 165–175 countries: predominantly 5/2 15–25 countries: predominantly 6/1 ~5–15 countries: genuinely mixed / difficult to classify

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#105
Other Western or global societal norms that started in America:

- female body hair removal[0]

- diamond engagement rings[1]

- to-go beverages in disposable paper cups[2]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_removal_of_leg_and_...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engagement_ring

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_cup

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#106

The 7 day week is completely artificial. Days exist, defined by the rotation of the Earth. Months exist, defined by the orbit of the moon. Seasons exist, defined by the solstices and equinoxes. Years exist, defined by the orbit of the Earth. Pretty much everything else is an invention of man.

If we are being even more pedantically correct about this:

1. The statement about months is kinda wrong. Solar months just happen because of the earths orbit around the sun, too, and the division by 12 is how many knuckles you can count on one hand by using your thumb.

Moon months exist, and there are 13 of them, from January to Undecember [Footnote: 1], or whatever you want to call them. But by happenstance if we talk about having a moon-month, we will probably be in a culture that uses a calendar that does not have a two-day weekend.

2. Seasons could be argued to be more complex than just sun-based on fixed yearly cycle. Whether four seasons for everyday life exist seems to depend on latitude, and is a bit counter-intuitive at the equator:

Based on solstices you would expect warm/cold/warm/cold, so twice as many seasons, per year, not half that many. Yet Quito or other cities seem to have rain dependent on yearly circulation effects, but constant temperatures. El Niño/La Niña would probably have at least as much of an effect and are of course not on strictest schedules in such areas, and perhaps make more sense for crop or disaster planning than solar years might.

But Southern Hemisphere does not use a reverse "Christmas is in summer" calendar[2]

---------------

Footnotes:

1: 11th month by name, but some Pope's birthdays reforms happened until we ended up with February at 28 days and no spring's start is the new year, etc.

2: Even if that was Christmas before the popes changed it and/or Christians like to feast when heathens brethren/converts did, simultaneously. And historically more plausible for a time of travel to do a census.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#107

Also, the week itself as a 'hard' delineator of time also appears to be fairly recent: > Henkin treats the seven-day week as a social and cultural institution, focusing primarily on the nineteenth-century United States. Unlike years, months, and days, which have astronomical foundations, the week is an entirely historical and social construct with no scientific basis. The study argues that the early American republic…

Have this professor Henkin heard of the moon?

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#108

For the elders here, what are the actual ways to not live under the rule of an industrial clock? I’m not talking about starting your own company get rich quick scheme or moving into the woods (unless..), but really, I don’t see many ways about it. You could move somewhere rural, lower expenses, but then you are socially isolated to an extent. So, move to where people are, oh but then the only way to support the lifes…

> I’m not talking about starting your own company get rich quick scheme

You will be better off staying under the yoke and obeying your masters. If you think starting your own company is some "get rich quick scheme", it means they have trained you well in what are your proper limits.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#109

Interesting article. I never thought about how important it is not just how many days off you have, but also when exactly you have them. It's really bad when you have days off, but you can't see your family. I actually like the concept of a four-day workweek. I wonder if it will ultimately prove successful, and if the whole world will adopt it?

My company picks up holiday policy from one of its dev center and applies to all other engineers who live in different cities. On my "vacation" I am the only one in myfamily who has day off; and when my kids have some holiday I have to work. It is impossible to explain this to HR team. Sic.

Just call in sick/PTO. I see that all the time with multi-timezone/country teams. Gotta have a manager/supervisor/CO that has your back though.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#110

We should have a 5-days week: A, B, C, D, E. Weekend would be E and A. 12 months of 6 weeks each, except "February" with an extra week. A would always the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th or 31st (in "February"). B would always be the 2nd, 7th, etc. Leap years would have a day F inserted between E and A at the end of "February" (of which it would be the 36th), keeping this new calendar consistent with the current one…

Very curious to understand the thinking behind this, why should the weekend be E and A? My first approach would be to have the weekend on D and E which would seem to be the end of the week.

Right. WeekEND. It's the end of the week. Not one day at the start and one at the end. It's why, currently, the week starts on Monday.
Post reply on HN