I've been a professional C, Perl, PHP and Python developer.
I'm an ex-sysadmin.
Back in the day, I had a geekcode which I'm not going to share with you.
418 I'm a teapot.
Are you saying that in the time before WW2 we didn't need to do any housework or childcare in that 8 hours of "personal" time? It seems like you're saying that only affected us since the 1980s?
You're right, in as much as I think most people would be on board with the idea of "work less", although it's obviously different for different people. Some people really enjoy the structure of their work life and feel lost without it. I don't understand them, but I know they exist!
But for now the "work less" approach only works if you've got money. Most of us can't afford to cut our hours, to have kids, or a house. It'd be great to be in a position to say, "I'll fix my life balance by sending less time working", but that's still a science-fiction utopia most of us will never see.
Are you saying that in the time before WW2 we didn't need to do any housework or childcare in that 8 hours of "personal" time? It seems like you're saying that only affected us since the 1980s?
Puzzles me where you got that impression from. But no. Why would anyone suggest that?
But for now the "work less" approach only works if you've got money. Most of us can't afford to cut our hours, to have kids, or a house. It'd be great to be in a position to say, "I'll fix my life balance by spending less time working", but that's still a science-fiction utopia most of us will never see.
Depends on what you mean by "got money". To some degree, there's truth in that for everything in our modern world. Can't eat without money. Well, not for long, or without someone else money ;-)
And science-fiction utopia? I would have guessed from that you're describing your small part of the world, wherever that is, and my gut feel would have been it's some place i the US - but apparently it's Scotland. Sorry to hear things are so dire there, because it's not the case everywhere by any means. Heck, I've grown up in Australia surrounded by people who elected to or were compelled to (only opportunity) work less and elected to live more frugal lives more simply than our surrounding culture and did very well, enjoying their lives as fully as any I'd seen. You'll meet such folk here at big music festivals and Rainbow Gatherings without any trouble.
That said, my brief visits to the UK (including Scotland) which were last in the '90s always did impress me as a land that made living very pricey indeed. But that was a biased perspective from an Aussie on the road, living off of savings as best possible. I remember one of my last visits to London when everyone I knew were conspired to be away or unavailable on a surprise visit, so I checked the YHA out, and they wanted more money than a hotel any place else, so I slept in a park ;-).
I don't see frugality as science fiction or a utopia, just something many are pressed into and other elect in order to win freedom from what many called "working for the man".
I lived the year of 2001 in Australia for net cost around the AU$5000 mark for example and didn't work for money a day that year ... but then I know a thing or two about utopia, and comfort I guess, or the options we have.
I can't promise you anything because every area and place on earth is different, very different, though there are also surprising similarities, but we can set those aside for now, the differences are real. In one place you get 2 weeks annual leave in about 7 weeks, in one place you work 42-hour weeks as the norm, in another 38. In one place you have near free public health care, in another you're out of pocket a day's wages just for a 15-minute doctor's visit. Moreover, a given place is different decade in decade out, time changes things. But I will nonetheless venture that you would be very surprised at how tight you can pull that belt when pressed or actually just deeply desirous, and on how little you'd get by.
I mean I have literally interviewed the homeless in Scotland and Germany and Australia, sat with them for a while, offered to share what I had in the way of food, heck sat with one in a cafe to discuss circumstances here last year, I get it, I have stories beyond a comment here if we had a pint and a night to kill ... event a night from living hell in Edinburgh (a published story that one) but you'll have to look me up if you come to Hobart (Tasmania) and find me on a good day (as I'm a little busy raising children, managing a house and big in the community of giving and caring and sharing and a couple of clubs to boot. But I'll gladly offer a pint of an evening in town and tell the wife a friend's in town ;-).
The killer for a lot of us in the past decade has been rent, or real estate (if buying). It's gone crazy here in Tassie, nuts. I do worry for my kids. And am in debt up to my ears because family thinks it was wise to buy a house for their future (and the bank is greedy and I'm a little nervous, but hey - we'll probably talk about how to spend less before we talk about working more, it's just too awesome having time with the kids and the community and living the life that "employment" takes away from us).
Still, between the two of us we earn about what one full time professional here is earning and we're surviving. Lucky in a lot of ways, never ungrateful, and hence also aware that we live in a country where most people are, yet seem always to complain or be worried they're not. Most of those don't know poverty, are clueless what it's like for a single mum (yeah oddly enough I've some experience there too - not being one of course, but you know, girlfriends ;-).
Of course, I do know not everyone is lucky. Heck no. many are really doing it tough. Not so many on dev.to I expect, not so many in the IT sector, but even there, indeed there'll be some. Not least because real estate has some folk really trapped. Not that it's necessarily draining all their income (though it can do that too) but because of the vicious cycle in places where demand outstrips supply, which I've seen in a good few places. Professional people end up on the streets, because of a hiccup, lose their job, miss a weeks rent, or landlord simply wants to convert the unit and they are evicted, or there are a lot of different hiccups and stories, but then they couch surf a while (heck been there too, but not of necessity, phew) but their friends slowly get tired of that, and they get embarrassed by it and so end up sleeping rough in the summer, but the general lack of a wardrobe and bath makes it hard to find work, and then hard to find a place and suddenly renting is like applying for a job, demands a CV and references and a good history ... a vicious cycle.
Anyhow, I'm rambling ;-). Life's short, live it ... love it, enjoy it, and watch yourself for excuses (and go easy on yourself too, it's not all excuses, life can be rough, but most folk who have time to complain about it have a ways to fall yet before it's really rough ;-).
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Are you saying that in the time before WW2 we didn't need to do any housework or childcare in that 8 hours of "personal" time? It seems like you're saying that only affected us since the 1980s?
You're right, in as much as I think most people would be on board with the idea of "work less", although it's obviously different for different people. Some people really enjoy the structure of their work life and feel lost without it. I don't understand them, but I know they exist!
But for now the "work less" approach only works if you've got money. Most of us can't afford to cut our hours, to have kids, or a house. It'd be great to be in a position to say, "I'll fix my life balance by sending less time working", but that's still a science-fiction utopia most of us will never see.
Puzzles me where you got that impression from. But no. Why would anyone suggest that?
Depends on what you mean by "got money". To some degree, there's truth in that for everything in our modern world. Can't eat without money. Well, not for long, or without someone else money ;-)
And science-fiction utopia? I would have guessed from that you're describing your small part of the world, wherever that is, and my gut feel would have been it's some place i the US - but apparently it's Scotland. Sorry to hear things are so dire there, because it's not the case everywhere by any means. Heck, I've grown up in Australia surrounded by people who elected to or were compelled to (only opportunity) work less and elected to live more frugal lives more simply than our surrounding culture and did very well, enjoying their lives as fully as any I'd seen. You'll meet such folk here at big music festivals and Rainbow Gatherings without any trouble.
That said, my brief visits to the UK (including Scotland) which were last in the '90s always did impress me as a land that made living very pricey indeed. But that was a biased perspective from an Aussie on the road, living off of savings as best possible. I remember one of my last visits to London when everyone I knew were conspired to be away or unavailable on a surprise visit, so I checked the YHA out, and they wanted more money than a hotel any place else, so I slept in a park ;-).
I don't see frugality as science fiction or a utopia, just something many are pressed into and other elect in order to win freedom from what many called "working for the man".
I lived the year of 2001 in Australia for net cost around the AU$5000 mark for example and didn't work for money a day that year ... but then I know a thing or two about utopia, and comfort I guess, or the options we have.
I can't promise you anything because every area and place on earth is different, very different, though there are also surprising similarities, but we can set those aside for now, the differences are real. In one place you get 2 weeks annual leave in about 7 weeks, in one place you work 42-hour weeks as the norm, in another 38. In one place you have near free public health care, in another you're out of pocket a day's wages just for a 15-minute doctor's visit. Moreover, a given place is different decade in decade out, time changes things. But I will nonetheless venture that you would be very surprised at how tight you can pull that belt when pressed or actually just deeply desirous, and on how little you'd get by.
I mean I have literally interviewed the homeless in Scotland and Germany and Australia, sat with them for a while, offered to share what I had in the way of food, heck sat with one in a cafe to discuss circumstances here last year, I get it, I have stories beyond a comment here if we had a pint and a night to kill ... event a night from living hell in Edinburgh (a published story that one) but you'll have to look me up if you come to Hobart (Tasmania) and find me on a good day (as I'm a little busy raising children, managing a house and big in the community of giving and caring and sharing and a couple of clubs to boot. But I'll gladly offer a pint of an evening in town and tell the wife a friend's in town ;-).
The killer for a lot of us in the past decade has been rent, or real estate (if buying). It's gone crazy here in Tassie, nuts. I do worry for my kids. And am in debt up to my ears because family thinks it was wise to buy a house for their future (and the bank is greedy and I'm a little nervous, but hey - we'll probably talk about how to spend less before we talk about working more, it's just too awesome having time with the kids and the community and living the life that "employment" takes away from us).
Still, between the two of us we earn about what one full time professional here is earning and we're surviving. Lucky in a lot of ways, never ungrateful, and hence also aware that we live in a country where most people are, yet seem always to complain or be worried they're not. Most of those don't know poverty, are clueless what it's like for a single mum (yeah oddly enough I've some experience there too - not being one of course, but you know, girlfriends ;-).
Of course, I do know not everyone is lucky. Heck no. many are really doing it tough. Not so many on dev.to I expect, not so many in the IT sector, but even there, indeed there'll be some. Not least because real estate has some folk really trapped. Not that it's necessarily draining all their income (though it can do that too) but because of the vicious cycle in places where demand outstrips supply, which I've seen in a good few places. Professional people end up on the streets, because of a hiccup, lose their job, miss a weeks rent, or landlord simply wants to convert the unit and they are evicted, or there are a lot of different hiccups and stories, but then they couch surf a while (heck been there too, but not of necessity, phew) but their friends slowly get tired of that, and they get embarrassed by it and so end up sleeping rough in the summer, but the general lack of a wardrobe and bath makes it hard to find work, and then hard to find a place and suddenly renting is like applying for a job, demands a CV and references and a good history ... a vicious cycle.
Anyhow, I'm rambling ;-). Life's short, live it ... love it, enjoy it, and watch yourself for excuses (and go easy on yourself too, it's not all excuses, life can be rough, but most folk who have time to complain about it have a ways to fall yet before it's really rough ;-).