9-to-5 is obsolete

This sort of freedom is available to perhaps the top-earning 1% of the world. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 per day [1]. Many people have to live in 40-square-foot foot apartments [2], or cages [3], or have to spend their entire waking lives carrying bricks on their heads [4].

You are in a rare position where you're capable of living a leisurely life, but do not misconstrue this as long work days and factories somehow becoming obsolete.

[1] http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-sta...

[2] http://inhabitat.com/chinese-human-rights-group-releases-sho...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU4jjdRzy3w

[4] http://www.lisakristine.com/atlantic-slavery-exists/

The problem is that there are a lot of employers trying to ditch 9-to-7 in order to institute 9-to-whenever-they-please (hint: don't expect daylight after exiting the office, not even in summer). Wide acceptance of 9-to-5 means guarantee of going home soon, that's what I don't want to lose. Yes, 9-to-5 it's broken for the kind of work we developers do, but be wary of everyone trying to dismiss it without talking about alternatives.

I see a lot of articles that try to apply the current power good developers have given the relative scarcity of computer programmers today.

Others talk about how everyone should start a business (software), not worry about degrees, or even stop whatever they're doing and just start programming.

It's this same bubble where we look around and think everyone is using an iPad, on gmail, etc.

The truth is most people don't have the bargaining power some of us enjoy, and that's not going to get better, our bargaining power will probably just shrink over time.

Yes, 9-to-5 is obsolete, because for the majority of office workers in 2013 it's 8-to-5 (if not longer).

thanks everyone for your comments.

You're mostly right, the article is focused on a specific target, it doesn not apply to the majority of people. I might say that the article is futuristic in the fact that it can apply to a lot more people than it does right now yet a lot has to change for that.

It will require a redistribution of wealth, even a different economic model (I personally go for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Z2cXK5mhc)

But a lot of people are in a position to make the jump and set their own rules. This article is for them.