Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why do people waste so much time at work?

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 230 posts

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#71

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

toolz wrote: post #57
erikb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote mentions that people either work to make a living or to make a reason for living. My argument is that there is another reason which is quite common: to get a bigger piece of the pie. If you put in more hours on friday night because you want a raise then the reason is not that you want to pay your bills (you already do that), and it's not because you couldn't do anything else on friday night that would be re…

No one seems to be suggesting taking work away from people that want it, rather, it's to alleviate people from working who don't want it. If you want to work 80 hour weeks to drive a car that can go faster than you'll ever legally be able to push it and live in a house so large you only use a quarter of the living space regularly. Go for it. As for me, I'd rather have my basics met, so I could spend more time doing t…

I think a lot of the slightly crazier competitive types would be completely happy competing in virtual market games that have no real physical effects.

I'm totally fine with slightly insane people gambling and trying to out-deal each other, providing they're not doing any physical damage.

The problem we have now isn't so much that competitive people exist, but they're not just allowed to do physical damage, they're encouraged to do it to gain "rewards" in the form of tribal status markers.

As games go, that's not a winnable strategy, because sooner or later you run out of usable game space.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#73

Post by Anderkent »

douche wrote: post #70
floppydisk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We tried this idea, in America, at the Jamestown Colony. They initially established it in a "socialist" vein wherein everyone received an equal share of the proceeds (food, etc) regardless of their contributions to the colony. The colony barely survived because people lacked the incentive to work and produce because there was no advantage to them working more than their peers. Why should I work to produce an excess w…

I support the idea of a basic income, but only if it is a replacement for the system of piecemeal welfare programs and tax-breaks that we currently have. The entire system could get so much simpler than it currently is. You get your basic income check for X dollars a month. If you work a job, run a business, whatever, in addition to that, you get taxed Y% on your earnings, excluding the basic income amount. No deduct…

Of course some people need more than just basic income to survive - if your medical expenses are 10x basic income, and you cut out all other welfare, how are those people meant to compensate?

There are some kinds of welfare that you can replace with basic income, but not all of them.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#74

Post by webtards »

Because we are playing the game. Some call it presenteeism, other call it face time, some even view it as the boss owning your ass during the work hours. But basically, we don't really give a fuck for the organisation, for the team, for the project, for the job. We just do enough to keep the gig until something better rolls along. We know you would have no hesitation to cut jobs and other such when it suits, so don't expect any more from us.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#75

Post by rorykoehler »

sillygoose wrote: post #54
rorykoehler wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time there is any thread about anything remotely socially progressive you are there espousing your highly conservative viewpoint. This made me curious and I am really trying to understand what life experiences could have led you to have such views. I have a few questions that might help paint a clearer picture if you would be so kind? If you decide to answer please answer honestly. Where did you grow up? What w…

> Every time there is any thread about anything remotely socially progressive you are there espousing your highly conservative viewpoint. Oh? Well, from my point of view I'm espousing independent thinking. Questioning things is a sign of doing that. > Where did you grow up? What were your parents jobs? How much did your parents earn in yearly income? I grew up in Finland, in an upper-middle class family. > Have you e…

As I suspected you have never experienced any financial hardship. This is fine in itself but is very telling in how you perceive the world.

It's easy to calculate the value of something that has no direct value to you. It's called a cost benefit analysis and it is the corner stone of any business education but is applicable in many fields beyond business. It is however impossible to do this accurately if you are incapable of any thinking apart from ego-centric thinking.

It was not clear that you understood the difference between want and need from your post. If you do understand the difference then you are purposefully corrupting the discussion. Please stop doing this.

Anyways thanks for answering honestly.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#76

Post by Anderkent »

Hytosys wrote: post #42
nathanvanfleet wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going back to school and dilly-dallying is mostly only really going to be viable if your parents are the ones who earned a big enough living to support you. I know people like that. Maybe corporations should adopt poor people or commission huge parties or works of art.

This quote reads as advocacy for unconditional basic income. I don't think education would ever be considered "dilly-dallying" in a society where poverty is generally impossible.

Hopefully that would also mean education would become cheaper.

Actually, given how expensive education is right now in the states, you could probably take the money one would spend on educating someone, put it in stocks or whatever, and have a nice 20+k yearly income, for which two people can rent a cabin in the mountains, grow their vegetable garden and chill.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#77

Post by spydum »

tormeh wrote: post #69
floppydisk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We tried this idea, in America, at the Jamestown Colony. They initially established it in a "socialist" vein wherein everyone received an equal share of the proceeds (food, etc) regardless of their contributions to the colony. The colony barely survived because people lacked the incentive to work and produce because there was no advantage to them working more than their peers. Why should I work to produce an excess w…

I think there's a middle ground to be found here. What if everyone gets the necessities and some basic niceties, and the most productive get the rest? You'd be working for luxury and status, as opposed to necessity, but isn't that motivation enough?

some sort of consumerism-socialist arrangement? i suspect youd end up with lot of folks who realize they can sit back and do nothing and sustain themselves. the labor pool of low-income jobs dries up, employers have to raise wages to attract workers, and the price of goods and services goes up. I'm sure there is some balancing point, but we dont know where that is (maybe thats the fear)

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#78

Post by rorykoehler »

jsudhams wrote: post #59
rorykoehler wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that from birth most of us are conditioned, through education and culture to not take this responsibility. Most of those who beat the trap have their passion squeezed from them through poverty or dreary corporate jobs that consume them. You wouldn't believe how many people ask me what people would do if they didn't have to work due to guaranteed basic income or some such. Why do I even have to answer tha…

Great point. I think with robotics and other automations we will get minimum wages and work / art or other efforts will give bonus. Kaliyug in vedas mentioned a 10000 years period where everything will great with everyone happily living with others with out wars and fights. I strongly believe if all countries work together we can make it happen. I think corporates in current methodology done their job and move on two…

I think part of the progression will be to get rid of the concept of countries as we know them today. Fixed geo-economic and geo-social boundaries are counter-productive to progress at this point in history but it will be very difficult to dismantle the structures we have in place. Thankfully we can already see the green shoots of this the EU and to a lesser extent North America but I suspect turmoil lay ahead as Nation Union superpowers' needs and wants create geo-political frictions and possibly war.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#79

Post by [deleted] »

jsudhams wrote: post #59
rorykoehler wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that from birth most of us are conditioned, through education and culture to not take this responsibility. Most of those who beat the trap have their passion squeezed from them through poverty or dreary corporate jobs that consume them. You wouldn't believe how many people ask me what people would do if they didn't have to work due to guaranteed basic income or some such. Why do I even have to answer tha…

Great point. I think with robotics and other automations we will get minimum wages and work / art or other efforts will give bonus. Kaliyug in vedas mentioned a 10000 years period where everything will great with everyone happily living with others with out wars and fights. I strongly believe if all countries work together we can make it happen. I think corporates in current methodology done their job and move on two…

[deleted]

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#80

Post by mdpopescu »

Uberphallus wrote: post #13

In my case it's the lack of documentation about a huge system (ecosystem, I'd rather call it), in contrast to an overengineered methodology and process, which involves mandatory code reviews by people unfamiliar with the code and 6 test phases before production. If I crank 10 lines of code a week I consider myself lucky, and it won't take less than 3 weeks for them to hit production. The combination of that with long…

I sincerely hope this (10 lines of code a week) is hyperbole. I would be fine with 3 weeks to hit production - not everybody works on a SaaS, I've had six months release cycles - but... not writing code?
Post reply on HN