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It's truly astonishing how many people apparently have a psychological need to be occupied with work in order to find meaning from their life. I can think of no

It's truly astonishing how many people apparently have a psychological need to be occupied with work in order to find meaning from their life. I can think of nothing better than to finally never have to worry about working just to cover my rent and food. Being in tech, I've had the privilege to be able to quit my job every few years and take extended sabbaticals. Without fail those breaks have been the best times of my life. Even when I just spent the time "doing nothing" from the point of view of an outsider - not taking up a new hobby, not working on any personal projects, not operating a side-hustle, just sitting around watching the world go by... it was fine. It was better than fine - it was great. It seems bizarre to me that anyone would prefer structured labor to that kind of freedom, but it turns out some people do. I just wish we had a society that would allow for both types of people to have the life they want.

handrous 5y ago
I don't think most people, except maybe in the EU, experience enough time-off to ever feel what it's like to not be working, and also not be trying to work. Weekends and evenings are barely enough—if they are at all—to catch up with chores and such that accumulated during working hours (that is, unpaid work). Most folks have a couple weeks of vacation, which will tend to be eaten up finally fixing the fence or that dripping faucet or else frantically trying to do some Big Thing (usually some kind of trip) because actual time off is so rare that you don't want to "waste it". Most people don't get any useful amount of actual free time until they retire. No wonder so many are lost when they do. They've had no practice at it, and have had all their time-requiring interests beaten out of them over decades of the work-week utterly dominating the rhythms of their life.

handrous 5y ago

I don't think most people, except maybe in the EU, experience enough time-off to ever feel what it's like to not be working, and also not be trying to work. Weekends and evenings are barely enough—if they are at all—to catch up with chores and such that accumulated during working hours (that is, unpaid work). Most folks have a couple weeks of vacation, which will tend to be eaten up finally fixing the fence or that dripping faucet or else frantically trying to do some Big Thing (usually some kind of trip) because actual time off is so rare that you don't want to "waste it". Most people don't get any useful amount of actual free time until they retire. No wonder so many are lost when they do. They've had no practice at it, and have had all their time-requiring interests beaten out of them over decades of the work-week utterly dominating the rhythms of their life.