Hacker News Reader

Comment by philmcp | Hacker News Reader

In years to come we will look down on the 5 day working week in the same way we currently do with 15hr factory shifts during the industrial revolution.

It blows my mind that 99% of jobs are still 5 days / week, Monday to Friday - why is there basically no variation on this model?

It annoys me so much that I recently launched https://4dayweek.io/ (Software Jobs with a better work / life balance)

View on HN

Why stop at 4 days a week? Why not 3? 2?

Like all good things, we have to iterate.

Ye I'm with you. I personally would like to see all jobs offered as as a fractional % (with some lower limit e.g. 3 days for 60%) - this is quite common in Switzerland for example.

A 4 day week is a much easier "sell" in the short term though

4 days gives an immediate benefit that is not as relevant for fewer days. It gives you a regular weekday off.

That means you have a day off to go to the bank, go to the doctors, call customer service for a bunch of companies that may not otherwise be open on the weekend, etc.

Further, the weekends carry an expectation of doing something. Such an expectation would not exist for the weekday off.

If we do move to a mass 4 day workweek, this obviously implies that the 3rd day off should not be the same for everybody, so basically it shouldn’t be implemented by just making Friday another day off like Saturday and Sunday. It would be much better if that 3rd day is divided for all employees between Mon-Fri.

3 days of weekend is 50% more than 2, for just 20% less work. The trade off is more extreme as the amount of work (or of weekend) approaches zero.

Ideally, we’d have flexibility around the denominator, allowing something like 4 on/2 off as a step towards 4 on/3 off. The maybe 4 on/4 off instead of all the way to 3 on/4 off. Changing the 7 day week is probably infeasible though… but I see equally crazy schedules from friends with shift work.

Right. It's almost as if giving people freedom to choose might be a good idea.

Outrageous idea in a wage slave society of course. What? Freedom to choose, for slaves? What nonsense. Big daddy government and big daddy corporations know what's best for you - here, choose coke or pepsi every 4 years, you are free to choose, you are free.

Do you just keep this on your clipboard to quickly shill your side project? I swear I’ve seen this word for word comment multiple times.

I admit I have posted it before, and will stop doing so - my bad

It's fine, harms no one

It might even find them a 4 day job.

I've just realized they posted the article just so they could comment, a bit lame. Maybe just post their project and have links to that The Atlantic article or whatever inside the project itself.

Good eye! It’s tough to get the Goldilocks level of self promotion and hustle. Too little and you aren’t aggressive enough. Too much and you’re slimy. HN is a picky bunch!

This is HN. Imo, shilling is fine if it's open, honest and relevant to the discussion.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#:~:text=Ple....

He posted the article so he could post his comment.

While I've also seen this comment before, it's very much on topic here.

He posted the article just to leave the comment. Check out his history…

Ok, unless he's also running a voting ring which would be directly against HN ToS, I don't see a problem with that either. I mean, the topic is obviously interesting enough to get the upvotes. If that means his side project gets more traction and eventually leads to more 4-day jobs being available, I'd consider that a win-win situation.

> Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff occasionally, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.

I was going to criticize his posting frequency, but on the other hand...he's getting more done for the tech world than many of us ever will.

Maybe we should be the ones submitting and talking about the 4 day work week more often.

It's on topic here because the person who posted the comment is the same person who posted the article.

In Paul's defense, it does seem to be a pattern:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27534517 (3 days ago; exactly the same (well... I guess they added "absolutely"))

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26468882 (3 months ago; exactly the same)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26114570 (4 months ago; exactly the same (except for the last sentence))

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26015969 (4 months ago; mostly the same)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25765787 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25674756 (both 5 months ago; both exactly the same as each other and only slightly modified from today's posting)

I admitted I have posted this before, and won't be doing so again - my bad

I for one don't mind it. I went 4 days/week in March and it changed my life for the better. I like my job but that one day off extra gives me so much flexibility. I can do all errands on Friday and then pick up the kid from school and have the whole Friday afternoon and weekend to spend with them. That means that during the week I finish work and can spend time however I want instead of doing chores...

In my opinion this 'message' should actually be pushed more and people encouraged to try it. If that means shilling some website with 4d/week jobs...so be it.

I appreciated it. Hadn't seen that website before and it led people to link similar websites!

Yep I found this annoying too since I remembered reading it 3 days ago, causing me to double check if I was accidentally reading the same comment thread again.

Whilst trying to be charitable to the poster (I guess there's no harm in pushing their side project) I would caution that carbon copying comments like this (to articles posted deliberately for the purpose of doing so) could come off as a bit insulting to the HN readership.

On the other hand, perhaps they're onto something since these articles keep rising up to the front page!

I don’t see what’s wrong with him posting his relevant side project as an advertising strategy. It’s clear what it is, and if youve seen it before you can just scroll past

He’s posting the articles about 4-day workweeks as an excuse to post the same comment linking to his side project.

What's wrong with giving people relevant information when relevant things come up? Things aren't always about you buddy

Reply on news.ycombinator.com