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> The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices. The average person has to consider all options in the light of both the current em

> The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices. The average person has to consider all options in the light of both the current employer and the specter of tomorrow’s. How is this different than what the majority of civilization had to do throughout history? People have always clung to their profession as their identity. Hell, people used to name themselves after their profession. If that is the problem, then push for fewer hours worked per week.

freehunter 7y ago
Back in the days when people named themselves after their job, there was no difference between career and personal life. You didn’t work 8-5 and then completely disconnect, you worked whenever the job needed done as many hours as it took. Loneliness only sets in when you have nothing else to do and you’re all alone. If you’re swinging a hammer at a hot forge for 16 hours a day loneliness is a secondary concern.
- kinos 7y ago
  Back when people had up to 6 months of time off a year?[1] [1] https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_...
  - freehunter 7y ago
    If modern people had half the year they could consider free time, no one would be lonely.
    - jdietrich 7y ago
      Retirees and the unemployed report high levels of loneliness.
      - imesh 7y ago
        Well yeah, all their friends and family are working.
- turk73 7y ago
  Back when people dropped dead around age 50...
BurningFrog 7y ago
When people named themselves after their job, it was often because the whole family did the job, and it was inherited. This is the opposite of loneliness.
- Balero 7y ago
  It also isn't particularly good for personal freedom, or social mobility. Recently society has been pushing for these two things, at the expense of personal connections. That means many successful people are working jobs that are out of the experience of their parents. They also do not necessarily share a lot of experiences of their formative years with the people they work with. All of this comes from personal freedom, but at the expense of being close to the people you spend your time with. I suppose you could also put it that its at the expense of spending time with the people you are close to.
  - rleigh 7y ago
    Maybe there's a spectrum here. A family trade is both highly social and highly stable, even if it is confining in terms of personal freedom and social mobility. Maybe, our current obsession as a society with personal freedom and social mobility is an extreme which is itself the cause of all the loneliness. It's an extreme which reduces the stability and cohesion of our society, because in promoting the freedom of the individual above all else, you've harmed the social connections which make a society work. Maybe there's a happy medium, but I think we might have passed it by over a century back.

freehunter 7y ago

Back in the days when people named themselves after their job, there was no difference between career and personal life. You didn’t work 8-5 and then completely disconnect, you worked whenever the job needed done as many hours as it took. Loneliness only sets in when you have nothing else to do and you’re all alone. If you’re swinging a hammer at a hot forge for 16 hours a day loneliness is a secondary concern.

kinos 7y ago
Back when people had up to 6 months of time off a year?[1] [1] https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_...
- freehunter 7y ago
  If modern people had half the year they could consider free time, no one would be lonely.
  - jdietrich 7y ago
    Retirees and the unemployed report high levels of loneliness.
    - imesh 7y ago
      Well yeah, all their friends and family are working.
turk73 7y ago
Back when people dropped dead around age 50...

BurningFrog 7y ago

When people named themselves after their job, it was often because the whole family did the job, and it was inherited. This is the opposite of loneliness.

Balero 7y ago
It also isn't particularly good for personal freedom, or social mobility. Recently society has been pushing for these two things, at the expense of personal connections. That means many successful people are working jobs that are out of the experience of their parents. They also do not necessarily share a lot of experiences of their formative years with the people they work with. All of this comes from personal freedom, but at the expense of being close to the people you spend your time with. I suppose you could also put it that its at the expense of spending time with the people you are close to.
- rleigh 7y ago
  Maybe there's a spectrum here. A family trade is both highly social and highly stable, even if it is confining in terms of personal freedom and social mobility. Maybe, our current obsession as a society with personal freedom and social mobility is an extreme which is itself the cause of all the loneliness. It's an extreme which reduces the stability and cohesion of our society, because in promoting the freedom of the individual above all else, you've harmed the social connections which make a society work. Maybe there's a happy medium, but I think we might have passed it by over a century back.