Working fewer hours is associated with higher life satisfaction | Hacker News Reader

Working fewer hours is associated with higher life satisfaction

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67 pointselorant35 comments

So people trade time with their families for accolades and an easy office chair? I wouldn't trade a single day I've spent with my nephews - for any amount of money. Years from now, I doubt you'd even sell your memory of the worse diaper you've ever changed. Most people balk at the idea of parting with past experience but will readily sign contracts that eliminate most future options. How is different tho?

You wouldn't sell me the memory of your kids first steps 5 years ago but you'll sell me his future ball games, all of his time between 9&5 and weekends if I give enough accolades

Don't buy the lie - work is fundamentally unfulfilling and everyone, everywhere eventually realizes that for themselves. If you disagree today, it doesn't matter, you will ultimately experience it... if you spend enough time alive.

All a career really is a different form of high school and absolutely as meaningless the moment its over.

Kids & family are not like that at all.

Are they? Once you die you won't take them with you. We all are born alone and die alone. When work stops, when life stops or when the world ends are they all meaningless or does each moment add to a wonderment.

So what do I do? Don't sell my future memories to support what I created?

I'm an incredibly capable individual but I just won't earn more than 20-30k a year, bc that's enough for my life. That means I will never buy a brand new car, house, or "financial security" , haha - also means I don't give a fuck about employment. I can change jobs as easy as I change a uniform. What I've learned from the, "I'll just be poor - keep your overtime" philosophy is huge tho - our PARTICIPATION is the most important thing, it's the key to everything.

When we are finally done with this boomer world - all we gotta do is sit down, or our own couches even, location isn't as important as not a fucking thing. The day we all decide to just stay home, is the day we get everything we want

I clearly use too many emojis if removing renders my text structure to that mess. The only thing I want to fix is the missing word doing from *as not DOING a fucking thing. Just sit down. Stop. Don't make payments - when they threaten your credit say, "fantastic, I'm done buying things" - when they mention morals and ethics, say your doing for this the planet and our survival as a species. Seriously. This is what I say to student loan collectors and I've had my loans returned to the university the very next day in one instance (typically over a year)

So you took on debt knowning you wouldn't repay it? That's theft. Your whole comment is a weird flex. Enjoy yourself.

No, I was tricked into this debt and I can't go bankrupt on it. I love that my choice to be poor is a flex tho - thats rich. I refuse to pay those that took advantage of my youthful ignorance for the rest of my life.

How were you "tricked" into debt? Did you not do due diligence? Prior research on the commitment you made? Forced to commit under duress?

Ignorance is not an alibi.

Or as my buddy GW put it

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.”

It should be my right to go bankrupt buddy - that's the part that proves this is fucked. I've watched so many business owners take on debt with the intent of going bankrupt - that's happening every single day. I was ignorant, but I was walked into those loans by the financial aid office at my state public university.

I refuse to pay - I want to accept the consequences of not paying, take the hit on my credit report for 10 years and move on with my life.

That I can't is dangerous for everyone. Societies that create too many of me - end.

>I'm an incredibly capable individual but I just won't earn more than 20-30k a year, bc that's enough for my life.

Is that your choice or an assumption?

When you get injured you'll just die right? Ezpeasy.

Here's an observation: many men end up throwing themselves at work even more, after they have children.

Why?

Now that I'm a father of a 3 year old, I can honestly say that the first couple years can be rather difficult: You're running hot. You're sleep deprived. Working (i.e. not taking care of kids) can be significantly easier, more rewarding; at least at work, you get accolades, right?

“Mondays are the new Fridays,” is how a coworker of mine put it.

I never would have believed this pre kids but 5 years later … so true!

That's one of the most depressing things I've ever read on the Internet

Its 100 % true. Really looking forward to mondays once friday night starts.

Infant + toddler, or 2 toddlers, is another level of brutal.

Multiple temper tantrums per day, zero negotiation space, and a constant cycle of cleaning up messes.

It gets better later though and its worth it :)

Yes, it is worth it even now.

But your boss doesn't tell you "You're the best Daddy in the world".. ;). (to be fair , sometimes I also get told I'm the worst Daddy in the world, but less often than I'm the best.. ;) ). I think people maybe work more either to (a) avoid their share of childcare because in some ways work is "easier". or (b) due to false idea of just how much it costs to raise children and therefore pressure to earn more. (we find kids are happy with a fair % of their toys and clothes being secondhand, and take pleasure in many activities that cost nothing or little)

IMO my 2yo can't really distinguish between new and used. Saves serious cash.

First thing I did when I finished education was reducing to a 4 day week. Life already got so much better, it felt like at least twice as much free time. Even thought it's 'only' 50% more.

In that free time I built businesses and today I sometimes just work an hour a week. And I never loved working as much as I do now. And honestly when I do working weeks at maybe 30 hours a week I am still way more productive than I ever was with 40 hours.

If you ask me the whole system is broken. Working 40 hours a week shouldn't be normal, sure if people want to why not, but it shouldnt be the usual offering, it shouldnt be the amount people need to work to have enough money for that little free time that is left.

Also starting at 8 o clock. I mean what the fuck is that? Nobody cares about the % of people who are way more productive at evening and need a long sleep. It's completely up to oneself to find a way to adapt in this world

Brilliant! I actually thought 3 or 4 day work weeks might be the answer after working a job like that - far better work to life balance, just better overall.

Sadly, I don't think a shorter work week will become the standard. I think automation will be the standard with a maximum of 10% of the current workforce still employed in some fashion.

This is the issue of our time and nobody is remotely addressing it - we better at least line up a handout while we are still needed.

I'd love social mobility but that will require ingenuity and effort, so I've decided to just preach the "just sit down" strategy - I really think it would work, that easy.

I feel like there's a balance but it's pretty low for most people. I recall a study that said the happiness of unemployed people improved when they started working again but the maximum benefit was reached from only one day per week of work.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20190619/how-much-w...

Will companies and governments listen? No, so nobody cares, just move on, the 8h with a dumb 1h lunch break is standard everywhere in the world.

Kinda reminds me how Twitch has this bot to remind you to stay hydrated (and keep streaming) but not to go out and on a walk every so often (I mean, you could stream while walking, but if you're for example a COD streamer that ain't gonna work...).

> people in European countries may enjoy working less because more of their earnings are taken out of their paychecks and given to the government to help support the welfare system.

A-ha. Fruitful ground for important future scientific insights.

Yet the happiest people in the world are from European social democratic countries with high taxation.

Richest guys I've met drove a Buick, lived in a rather plain house and wore everyday normal boomer clothes.

Buicks can be quite nice: https://www.motortrend.com/news/buick-regal-tourx-opel-insig...

Surprising nobody.

Who doubts this?

No shit Sherlock.

in other news, water is wet.

Next up: higher income associated with luxury car ownership.

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