4 ms·

Anthropologists seem to agree* that hunter-gatherers (our ancestors, but also ones living in modern times) worked a little less than 8 hours a day. * For sourc

Anthropologists seem to agree* that hunter-gatherers (our ancestors, but also ones living in modern times) worked a little less than 8 hours a day. * For source, I've seen Yuval Noah Harari and Peter Gray writing about it.

ue_ 9y ago
Although I don't think it's very wise to say we should try to reach for the ideal of the hunter-gatherer society, but it's undeniable that the combination of (i) overproduction and (ii) machinery being used for short-term profit rather than meaning people have to work less is causing a lot of time used working when it could, in a society not driven by profit, be used for various kinds of fulfillment and sharpening one's intellectual faculties. As Oscar Wilde put it: Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like M. Renan; a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of others, to stand ‘under the shelter of the wall,’ as Plato puts it, and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the whole world. These, however, are exceptions. The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism – are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation.
cholantesh 9y ago
GP specifically mentions the middle ages, though; I think 8 hours would have been considered pretty light by then.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  It would have been light in some parts of the year, but long in others. In addition to natural seasonality in agricultural work, simply the availability of light limits many kinds of labor until you have something better (both in light quality and resource, including labor, cost for the light provided) than firelight.
  - cholantesh 9y ago
    Makes sense - sounds like a lot of trades today, albeit a bit better (maybe) because you had one client and they provided for you during the off season.
taw55 9y ago
I might be wrong, but I think agricultural societies had very long working days at harvest time but relatively short ones on average. During the transition of feudalism to industrialism working hours rose significantly (as did productivity, but kept churning due to new class relationships).

ue_ 9y ago

Although I don't think it's very wise to say we should try to reach for the ideal of the hunter-gatherer society, but it's undeniable that the combination of (i) overproduction and (ii) machinery being used for short-term profit rather than meaning people have to work less is causing a lot of time used working when it could, in a society not driven by profit, be used for various kinds of fulfillment and sharpening one's intellectual faculties. As Oscar Wilde put it: Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like M. Renan; a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of others, to stand ‘under the shelter of the wall,’ as Plato puts it, and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the whole world. These, however, are exceptions. The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism – are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation.

cholantesh 9y ago

GP specifically mentions the middle ages, though; I think 8 hours would have been considered pretty light by then.

dragonwriter 9y ago
It would have been light in some parts of the year, but long in others. In addition to natural seasonality in agricultural work, simply the availability of light limits many kinds of labor until you have something better (both in light quality and resource, including labor, cost for the light provided) than firelight.
- cholantesh 9y ago
  Makes sense - sounds like a lot of trades today, albeit a bit better (maybe) because you had one client and they provided for you during the off season.

taw55 9y ago

I might be wrong, but I think agricultural societies had very long working days at harvest time but relatively short ones on average. During the transition of feudalism to industrialism working hours rose significantly (as did productivity, but kept churning due to new class relationships).