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

We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

sciencenordic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 279 posts

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#51

Post by zanny »

r4dius wrote: post #11

If I didn't have to answer email or deal with any middle management, this could work. But the paradox is that the only scenario in which legitimate optimal efficiency can be attained is in a small-group, highly-communicative environment (like a startup); in that kind of environment, you're putting in 80-hour weeks so you can get profitable as quickly as possible, so there's no way anyone is saying "I've put in my 25…

But those startups are people basically willingly surrendering themselves to the ideology. The article isn't about the empassioned individuals who want to make it big, it is about Average Joe who works at any middle class company 40 hours a week without any desire to do it and no passion to continue.

If you have the drive to try to do something big, putting all your time into it is kind of mandatory. But if you just work for the money to survive on, you shouldn't need to put in such a significant portion of ones time.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#52

Post by ekianjo »

rndmize wrote: post #38
ekianjo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what will likely be a post-labor world Says who ? This preposterous way of thinking has been around for x years already. "when the world population will reach 4 billions people, there will be no jobs for everyone", yet the population is still increasing beyond 6 billions and most people still work to live/survive. There is no hint we are moving to a post-labor world. You will see that there is a strong relationship…

You seem to be misunderstanding something. A post-labor has nothing to do with population and everything to do with automation. As it becomes more efficient to have robots and computers to do what was previously human work, we will eventually reach a point where just about every conceivable job that we currently employ people for could be automated. Most likely, a post-labor world should be capable of arriving well b…

Even if you have robots you will still need a massive workforce to produce them, to get the resources to produce them, to check them, to maintain them, to repair them, to program them, to update them and so on. Or maybe you believe in a state of singularity in which all of this will happen at the same time? :)

Automation has already been happening in many industries, in case you have not noticed, and that did not result in lost job opportunities on the whole of the economy. Agriculture is also largely mechanized all around the world and you have only a very little portion of the population (5% or so) in developed countries to produce far enough for everyone.

Most jobs in developed countries are service related. These jobs will not disappear even if you automate the production part of the economy.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#53

Post by youngerdryas »

olliesaunders wrote: post #45

Incidentally, an enforced max number of hours per work week is a potential solution to the high unemployment a lot of countries have right now.

Please no. More useless busybodies and paperwork. It would probably be cheaper to extend unemployment benefits.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#54

Post by ahomescu1 »

olliesaunders wrote: post #49
readme wrote: post #22

This guy might be on to something, but I have an even better idea, and it required 0 scientific research to synthesize. We should all do whatever the fuck we want, until we die.

> We should all do whatever the fuck we want, until we die. Yeah but we’re not allowed to. Most employers will demands you show up for 40 hours a week and then frown at you or, at least, never promote you if you don’t stay for a lot more.

You could start your own company, be your own employer and work as much as you feel like.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#55

Post by marksbrown »

olliesaunders wrote: post #45

Incidentally, an enforced max number of hours per work week is a potential solution to the high unemployment a lot of countries have right now.

Such a limit exists within the EU already. The working-time directive[1] limits people to 48 hours work per week. High unemployment is unfortunately still about despite this. As to reducing this to a lower number, the UK already has 1 in 10 people 'underemployed'[2]. Fewer hours would of course be preferable, but housing and a disposable income does come first.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Time_Directive [2]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20526259

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#56

Post by _delirium »

readme wrote: post #22

This guy might be on to something, but I have an even better idea, and it required 0 scientific research to synthesize. We should all do whatever the fuck we want, until we die.

If you're wealthy, that's of course an option: your ability to do whatever the fuck you want is completely unconstrained by any need to eat or pay for shelter or healthcare. In other cases, you have to balance risks and material necessities, which sometimes (often) requires bending to external constraints and doing things you do not, in fact, want to do. And what your options are there strongly depends on prevailing economic/legal/social norms.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#57

Post by bluedanieru »

ekianjo wrote: post #28
zht wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you have extremely long days but 5 days a week or do you spread it out over 6 or 7 days?

In Japan, by the way, it is not uncommon to work 6 days a week (Saturdays). It depends on your contract.

I heard a story, perhaps apocryphal, that the national government commissioned a study a few years back to investigate ways to curb this practice.

The committee was disbanded after a minor scandal when it was discovered that they were making everyone come in on Saturdays to work.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#58

Post by lotu »

olliesaunders wrote: post #49
readme wrote: post #22

This guy might be on to something, but I have an even better idea, and it required 0 scientific research to synthesize. We should all do whatever the fuck we want, until we die.

> We should all do whatever the fuck we want, until we die. Yeah but we’re not allowed to. Most employers will demands you show up for 40 hours a week and then frown at you or, at least, never promote you if you don’t stay for a lot more.

You are allow to do what ever the fuck you want until you die just don't expect me to give you money for doing what ever the fuck you want. As I too am doing what every the fuck I want, which happens to include only giving money to people who do something useful for me.

Re: We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor

#60

Post by revscat »

readme wrote: post #22

This guy might be on to something, but I have an even better idea, and it required 0 scientific research to synthesize. We should all do whatever the fuck we want, until we die.

Says someone who obviously doesn't have a child support payment.
Post reply on HN