Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And the funny thing is we developers did this to ourselves, by doing free open source work for the greater good, which now feeds AI models that are replacing many of us. Open source is not to blame here. AI companies used the code, in some cases against the license, to train their models. Nobody is actually getting replaced - it's just that layoffs are in vogue now. If there was productivity to gain here, it would…
“Nobody is actually getting replaced” is an interesting take given currently available information on force reductions, stated cause, and AI implementation increases across sectors replacing workloads and causing fewer employees to accomplish the same goals, regardless of any opinions on whether that is positive, negative, problematic, or anything else to the future since the impact is now. Could you point to some fa…
Can we have the day off?
761–770 of 823 posts
Re: Can we have the day off?
#762My dad was a stock broker in the late 1970s and remembers when most of trading was 100% manual and firms actually had "runners" who would take stock certificates back and forth between trading firms. He has this great quote about when computers came out: "We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the sam…
It is the fundamental requirement of capitalism to convert every increase in productivity into profit rather than into time. In a communist society where the people own the means of production collectively the measure of wealth would not be money but disposable free time.
So the theory goes. Can you point out one place where this is working out?
Re: Can we have the day off?
#763Earlier quoted context omitted.
> During those 3 days all I really did was work and sleep. This is why 3x12 is not workable for average families. If you have kids and want to see them, 3x12 only works if you start really really early, then get to bed early when the kids do too. I enjoyed 4x10 when I did it, but there were some real problems with some employees trying to adapt. Anecdotally we were seeing a lot of people who would barely work until t…
IME most people don't have more than 4 (maybe 5) hours of effective heavy cognitive / creative energy in a given day. Of course YMMV, and it's common to have periods of sustained output when deeply committed to and energized by something, but over the long haul, week in, week out, splitting the workday into roughly 8h sleep, 8h work, 8h everything else, with 2/7 days off plus many holidays and some weeks of paid vaca…
Only having 4-5 hours of effective cognitive energy per day is exactly why I would want fewer work days and more off days. Because that "8 hours every thing else" is not the same as the 8 hours of work, you've already blown your cognitive load.
Re: Can we have the day off?
#764> So can I just take Friday off? From here on out, I’ll work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then take Friday off. Yeah, if you switch to working as an independent contractor, you can work any amount of time you want. If you run your own business, you can work crazy hours or none at all. The world is truly your oyster I'm not being facetious either. That's exactly what I did, and I got what I asked for We c…
Salary positions at most companies will have a nice laugh, then move on to the next candidate. I think being able to do this is exceedingly rare.
Re: Can we have the day off?
#765My dad was a stock broker in the late 1970s and remembers when most of trading was 100% manual and firms actually had "runners" who would take stock certificates back and forth between trading firms. He has this great quote about when computers came out: "We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the sam…
Computers feel like a pretty good analogy for how AI will affect the workforce.
I suspect productivity will massively increase, the complexity and cognitive load of our work will similarly multiply, and yet we'll still being doing the now-more-complex work in some capacity for a similar number of hours.
Re: Can we have the day off?
#766Earlier quoted context omitted.
This might be fair if the rules of the market were static, but companies are actively using their power and influence to affect the market rules so they can get away with paying workers less and less - that's not to mention collusion and corruption. Just because this has been normalized doesn't mean it's not evil. If a healthcare company introduces processes that deny people life-saving interventions just to funnel m…
> but companies are actively using their power and influence to affect the market rules so they can get away with paying workers less and less - that's not to mention collusion and corruption. What do you mean? Labor is a market. Companies can’t force anyone to work for them. If the pay gets too low, people leave for other companies or jobs.
Markets are social constructs, not something given in nature. As such, there are rules enforced by laws to how the markets operate. Powerful money interests can shape those rules by influencing politicians to pass laws in their favor.
Re: Can we have the day off?
#767This is a problem fundamental to capitalism. Capitalist organizations are organized as dictatorships, with capitalists as the dictators. Captialists have their own class interests that is opposed to the workers'. And they also are the ones who unilaterally decide how increased productivity gains (revenue/profit) are distributed. They are not going to decide to give you another day off. They are going to maximize profit.
ALL technological progress under capitalism goes through this same conflict. It's why workers are sometimes pressed into reactionary positions like opposing self-checkout lanes. Capitalists decide to deploy the technology in a way that is worse for the workers. Technological progress could be liberatory. Technology could be used to make workers' lives better, like working less, if workers were in charge of the organizations in which they worked.
Re: Can we have the day off?
#768Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a naive view. Companies will literally pay you as little as they can get away with. If they think they can hire someone “equivalent” according to HR for less money they will often do so. Actual contribution means nothing unless you’re willing to walk away. I’ve literally seen an intern with less than one year of experience when hired into a company where a senior architect who has been at the same firm for 16…
> Companies will literally pay you as little as they can get away with. Everyone pays as little for everything as they can get away with. Companies aren't doing anything unusual or evil. This is literally just how a market works. A lot of people forget that the job market is a market. Or they wish it wasn't a market and they could block out competition for themselves so companies had to pay them more (at the expense…
> Companies aren't doing anything unusual or evil.
You literally just described an evil behavior. It's obviously not evil when you're shopping for gadgets, but if you think that's morally comparable to the livelihoods of human beings, I'm sorry to inform you that you're a psychopath.
> This is literally just how a market works. A lot of people forget that the job market is a market.
You say that like you think it's a law of physics. Markets don't exist in nature. Markets are a conscious, deliberate creation by humans.
> Or they wish it wasn't a market
Correct! We've unambiguously determined that applying market logic to people's livelihoods is inhumane and immoral. There shouldn't be a market for being allowed to live. It should just be guaranteed to everybody.
Re: Can we have the day off?
#769Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have my vote. Work to live, don’t live to work. ~90% of Iceland is on a 35-36 hours work week, seems to work fine. Remote work was also skeptically thought of up until a global pandemic forced it, and while there has been some retreat, 20% of Americans work remotely in some capacity still. Just need a catalyst to challenge norms and rigid mental models. https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ICELAND_4DW…
>20% of Americans work remotely in some capacity still That's a pretty abysmal number considering the number who do want remote work and its productivity improvements and its overall lower waste. I'm surprised it's so low.
How Remote Workers Are Counted Changes Results - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48312822 - May 2026
Re: Can we have the day off?
#770Earlier quoted context omitted.
In some European countries, you can actually go on welfare and never work again. It takes some tricks because the state doesn’t like it; and maybe you‘ll want to do some undeclared side jobs for 15h a week and you’ll be comfortable. I don’t know how such people can live with themselves. But apparently, if you’re immune to the second factor, it is possible, nowadays, to work 15h or less, without any wealth, and lead a…
Oh sure, you get free stuff indefinitely if you abuse the system. You sound like that tiktok post about the "infinite free money glitch" that is check fraud.
And? Try doing that 200y ago. There was no system to exploit. The system exists because progress has made it possible.