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> As if to mask the issue, we give other names to our inconvenient choices: We call them hobbies, avocations, callings, passions. Aren't those things also fill
by redka 9y ago
> As if to mask the issue, we give other names to our inconvenient choices: We call them hobbies, avocations, callings, passions.
Aren't those things also filled with convenience? We use convenient tools, places, etc. for them.
As the author described earlier "By saving time and eliminating drudgery, it would create the possibility of leisure. And with leisure would come the possibility of devoting time to learning, hobbies or whatever else might really matter to us". Since this is most likely, at least to a point, true then couldn't convenience be thought of as something allowing us to advance in areas that are of interest to us instead of wasting time for things that aren't?
> “Even with all the new labor-saving appliances,” she wrote, “the modern American housewife probably spends more time on housework than her grandmother.”
Even if that's the case I'm sure it's not if we take into account more than a single generation. Imagine, for example, the convenience of the washer. Before it, washing the clothes was a very tedious and time-consuming task.
- jfk13 9y ago> Imagine, for example, the convenience of the washer. Before it, washing the clothes was a very tedious and time-consuming task. True; but I suspect that in the past, people didn't wash as many clothes as frequently as we do now. It seems possible that the total amount of laundry being done in a typical household has grown so that although the process is easier/more efficient, we still spend a similar amount of time on it.
- andrepd 9y agoI don't think this is true; see e.g. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/time-spent-in-home-production-in-the-twentiethcentury-united-states-new-estimates-from-old-data/59CAB406A472381356E80B92B90B6860 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lazyjones 9y ago> And with leisure would come the possibility of devoting time to learning, hobbies or whatever else might really matter to us". Or perhaps it gives us time to spend on addictions. It might be the other way around: addictive behavior and the time it requires, fuelled by a plethora of available addictive products (drugs, computer games, social media...) causes us to value convenience more than we should.
- Finnucane 9y agoAt some point it is a subjective call what is drudgery or inefficiency and what is desirable work. I, for one, maintain a wet darkroom because I like to make prints by hand, it’s something that makes me feel engaged with the result in a way that digital workflow doesn’t. But it’s totally my choice to do this. And to choose which parts of the process I want to simplify(I use a motorized drum to process film). I like to cook, but there’s no way i’d Give up my electric mixer.
- PeterisP 9y ago"the modern American housewife probably spends more time on housework than her grandmother" is quite ridiculous. For her grandmother, housework was a full time job while in the modern American family housework can be done even if all adults are employed in other full time jobs.