The benefits of productivity increases should not be consolidated at the top. We should take our time back.
i already do this. my boss just doesn’t know it.
Me too. My boss is cool with it.
Y’all hiring? I prefer pretend workaholism but I can adapt.
I don’t understand the title. Specialisation is one of the drivers of having a shorter work day. If your work is niche, then you can get a higher pay rate and work less hours because you are in greater demand. Otherwise if you are a generalist, you have to supply more of your time to meet the wider demand.
It’s a Heinlein quote.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
I’m on the fence, personally, some to like, some not.
“jack of all trades, master of none; but better than a master of one” as the old saying goes
Good saying…
I’m on the fence, personally, some to like, some not.
pretty much describes my feelings towards Heinlein.
If your work is niche, then you can get a higher pay rate and work less hours because you are in greater demand.
While it might work that way currently, I dont think its really desirable to have some people work way less than others based on skill. I dont think me being a software developer should result in me having more free time than the health care worker.
And beyond that, overspecialisation leads to siloing of expertise and common knowledge. People with specialised knowledge having the freedom to reskill, or being able to spend some time doing more meditative, menial work and mixing with people with all different types of knowledge and skill will enrich their expert knowledge, not detract from it. Cross-pollination of knowledge is a real thing.
12 hours? Must be playing Commander.
Just one quick game.
Only when people are running exorbitant amounts of symmetrical boardwipes. Resetting the game tends to make them last forever.
Are you telling me you don’t like my (hypothetical) Child of Alara boardwipes deck?
In actuality, I’m with you. I build my decks so that they’re fun to play, and hopefully fun to play against. A guy at my local store apparently only builds decks that are a slog to play against. Thalia and Gitrog death and taxes, with Winter Orb and fogs to show the game down so he can win with Gates. Norin thievery. Anikthea enchantment lockout, with multiple ways to populate copies of Sphere of Safety and other pillowfort enchantments. You get the idea.
I do get the idea, and I have a deck specifically made to ruin their fun as I have a friend who does the same kinds of things much too often. I built an ‘assist’ deck that’s mostly group hug but also adds in a good amount of combo pieces for everyone.
Need flash? Here’s tidal barracuda.
Need cards? Heartwood storyteller, kami of the Cresent, howling mine, and my personal favorite soldevi sentry is there for you.
Need untaps? Intruder alarm.
Need land? Here’s all the basics you could ever want with avatar of growth, new frontiers, collective voyage, and rites of flourishing.
Im not here for a long time, but it’s going to be a good time. It also heavily rewards bad mana bases with lots of basics.
(Nobody tell that guy, he’s holding his cards backwards)
Not that there is anything wrong with insects.
In recent years I’ve run some experiments on what works for me and what doesn’t. ‘6h for work - 9h for rest - 9h for whatever’ division seems to work wonders for me, with one day off in a week.
Trying to sleep less than 9h just messes everything up, unless I divide the sleep into two sections. Funny how that works. Extra 1.5h of being awake, especially during the productive night hours, was quite nice. But I hate waking up, and doing that twice a day is just simply too much!
Every person will vary. I am more comfortable with 5-7 hours sleep.
Without specialization we’re all farmers again.
If you understand the point that people shouldn’t be unitaskers, then yeah, more people would learn how to farm in this kind of world. More people would spend time doing waste management or construction or gardening or street-sweeping or meal delivery and on and on. Experts would have a chance to see the world from the perspective of the people who have to live with the decisions their expertise influences, and they would be able to make more grounded decisions.
This isn’t about getting rid of experts or specialised forms of production, it’s about freeing people to not commit to a single task their entire lives.
What if I’m a farmer specialist?
You’re no longer special.
Without specialization we’re all farmers again.
honestly that wouldn’t be bad, part time - returning portions of diets to home grown produce. I was really impressed with two 3x2’ raised beds could grow in our side yard (the part that gets the most light). I know it’s not practical for everyone, but pea-patches (communal gardens) are crazy popular here in Seattle, and i’m sure elsewhere.
A few hours a week devoted to helping the community garden or your own plots aren’t a full time vocation, but return massive dividends in whatever you can manage. We got great crops of cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, fingerling potatoes and rosemary (front and back plantings producing way more than we can use ourselves).
Garden people, it’ll improve your lives.
No I think without specialization, we’d all be spending way more time surviving than we spend on work today.
And the only reason we have enough food to support the current population is massive farms with incredible yields made possible by enormous machines.
That whole pipeline of products and services is maintained by people who specialize in what they do.
How about 0 hours for work?
Contrary to what a lot of the rich want to push, humans are not lazy layabouts. It’s most obvious in the retired. It’s great for a while, but then many get bored (or just drop dead). They need something to do. I actually help out with a charity helping with that very issue.
The problem isn’t work. The problem is being locked into doing a job you hate, for not enough money, for a huge chunk of your time.
What we actually need to do is let people have more freedom to be productive, in a way that fits them. Though how to get from here to there is the big challenge.
I agree, but for me there is a difference between being productive and work. I want to feel productive, helpful, effective, feel the impact of my actions etc. but to me that is something different from work.
So i guess its mostly a semantic difference?
I wouldn’t be particularly surprised to find out the Fully Automatic Luxury Gay Space Communism era starts the moment the last millennial is too old to appreciate it
I’ve been doing that for years and honestly a little bit of work is better
Then society will fall apart
Comes down to what is work for you. Work for me is what I do for my employer and that is actually not done for the benefit of society but for their profit. I think I would have a better impact on society if I did not work and instead just did the things that needed to be done. Cleaning the neighborhood, helping friends and neighboors, building things that need to be build, cooking food for strangers and comrades etc…
I agree. I’m retired. My working life was approximately bookended with two radically different “social value” jobs: turf farm labourer and “town man” (technically, public works foreman, but that doesn’t do justice to the reality of being the only employee).
In the first, I was helping to grow grass for people too lazy to put in their own lawns. I have difficulty imagining a less useful industry. For all the damage caused by the petroleum industry, we at least get energy and materials in exchange. Lawns? Give me a break.
In the last, I kept the water safe to drink, the sewage safe to return to the environment, the garbage off the street and properly landfilled, and the infrastructure in good repair.
When I look back at all the other jobs I did, only working for an ambulance manufacturer comes even close to having the same social value as that town man job. Most of the rest could easily have been wiped from the face of the earth and the net effect would be an improved society.
I imagine this as a Magic the Gathering youtuber whose hobby is productive workshop projects and it makes it a neat sort of funny-sad statement about society.
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