We're still working like (eg.) coal miners, inherited from the first industrial revolution. More people, more hours: more coal extracted. Interestingly, farme

We're still working like (eg.) coal miners, inherited from the first industrial revolution. More people, more hours: more coal extracted. Interestingly, farmers in the middle ages are a much more balanced model (catastrophes aside): the land they had was mostly manageable by a small group of people, and there's only only so much you can optimize, given the patch of land that you have. So you do what you have to do and when you're done, well, you're done.