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Interesting facts discussed: * The global average IQ score is rising by about 3 IQ points every decade. * Time spent doing laundry fell from 11.5 hours a week

Interesting facts discussed: * The global average IQ score is rising by about 3 IQ points every decade. * Time spent doing laundry fell from 11.5 hours a week in 1920 to an hour and a half in 2014.

dalbasal 9y ago
..on laundry, that hour and a half is spent washing a lot more clothes than the eleven before. If we had the limited wardrobes of those people, it'd probably be down to twenty minutes.
- ams6110 9y ago
  On the flip side, 11 hours seems high. I've washed clothes by hand before; it doesn't take that long and in fact it's faster than washing by machine (though you can't do something else at the same time).
  - h1srf 9y ago
    If you're only washing your clothes maybe but 11 hours a week sounds reasonable if one person is washing clothes for a family + hanging/collecting/folding
voidmain0001 9y ago
If you live in an area with reasonably priced electricity and access to plentiful water. I lived in Honduras for 3 years (2009 - 2012) and laundry consumed far too much of my time because water in the community came twice per week, and electricity was expensive. I had a cistern which was connected to the water main, and I installed a floating shut off valve so that I could leave the valve open to fill with water when it came without notice and invariably I was out working. I couldn't afford a dryer due to high cost of electricity and I was volunteering without any spare income during that period so I had to wash and dry clothes on sunny days. There were people in the community that still washed clothes by hand using a scrub board and I know that they spent many hours weekly on it.
- Simon_says 9y ago
  Easy solution, just don't be born in Honduras.
  - dang 9y ago
    Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? We ban accounts that do this repeatedly, and have already had to warn you more than once. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Diederich 9y ago
  We have a long ways to go. I haven't read the book, but I strongly suspect that it doesn't suggest that we are finish, or that we rest on our laurels. Feeling good about progress made thus far is an excellent way to provide the motivation necessary to push forward even harder.
- notatoad 9y ago
  I believe th hour and a half is a global average. So the many hours you spend in Honduras is balanced by the 15 minutes a week I spend on laundry.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
disgruntledphd2 9y ago
The IQ thing is the Flynn Effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect), which is pretty cool, if a little puzzling. The laundry one is also good, because I hadn't already heard of it :)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

Interesting facts discussed: * The global average IQ score is rising by about 3 IQ points every decade. * Time spent doing laundry fell from 11.5 hours a week in 1920 to an hour and a half in 2014.

dalbasal 9y ago

..on laundry, that hour and a half is spent washing a lot more clothes than the eleven before. If we had the limited wardrobes of those people, it'd probably be down to twenty minutes.

ams6110 9y ago
On the flip side, 11 hours seems high. I've washed clothes by hand before; it doesn't take that long and in fact it's faster than washing by machine (though you can't do something else at the same time).
- h1srf 9y ago
  If you're only washing your clothes maybe but 11 hours a week sounds reasonable if one person is washing clothes for a family + hanging/collecting/folding

voidmain0001 9y ago

If you live in an area with reasonably priced electricity and access to plentiful water. I lived in Honduras for 3 years (2009 - 2012) and laundry consumed far too much of my time because water in the community came twice per week, and electricity was expensive. I had a cistern which was connected to the water main, and I installed a floating shut off valve so that I could leave the valve open to fill with water when it came without notice and invariably I was out working. I couldn't afford a dryer due to high cost of electricity and I was volunteering without any spare income during that period so I had to wash and dry clothes on sunny days. There were people in the community that still washed clothes by hand using a scrub board and I know that they spent many hours weekly on it.

Simon_says 9y ago
Easy solution, just don't be born in Honduras.
- dang 9y ago
  Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? We ban accounts that do this repeatedly, and have already had to warn you more than once. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Diederich 9y ago
We have a long ways to go. I haven't read the book, but I strongly suspect that it doesn't suggest that we are finish, or that we rest on our laurels. Feeling good about progress made thus far is an excellent way to provide the motivation necessary to push forward even harder.
notatoad 9y ago
I believe th hour and a half is a global average. So the many hours you spend in Honduras is balanced by the 15 minutes a week I spend on laundry.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

disgruntledphd2 9y ago

The IQ thing is the Flynn Effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect), which is pretty cool, if a little puzzling. The laundry one is also good, because I hadn't already heard of it :)

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]