8 ms·

Pursuing the Reunification of Home and Work

47 points by see-also 4y ago

robg 4y ago
The homestead of the future is one where multiple generations live together while working remotely. Knowledge work had been reducible to bits for 20 years, now they can be transmitted anywhere in milliseconds, just in time for a family lunch or dinner or movie.
- chromatin 4y ago
  It sounds nice, but there are extremely large segments that keep society functioning that don't involve knowledge work and can't be done remotely. It's easy to forget how much it takes behind the scences to keep the machine humming smoothly.
  - Gare 4y ago
    > It's easy to forget how much it takes behind the scences to keep the machine humming smoothly. Until your toilet gets clogged.
    - barrenko 4y ago
      Somewhat similar to climate crisis. If we shut off AC's globally for two days, we'd figure out the solution.
      - 8organicbits 4y ago
        Can you clarify?
      - Georgelemental 4y ago
        Here in France, a wealthy industrialized nation, most houses and buildings (even those of rich people) don't have AC. In my experience, this is typical of most of Europe. Then again, we have figured out the solution to the climate crisis, it's nuclear power
  - pawsforthought 4y ago
    Indeed. It is a considerable oddity how very material the lives of us wealthy knowledge workers are, yet how immaterial our labor.
  - barrenko 4y ago
    It will work for a lot of people, and further the divide we have going on now :D.
  - nonameiguess 4y ago
    You don't need every person in the household to work remotely, just enough to be able to collectively handle the housework. You're more likely to cross that threshold with six adults than with two.
- fleddr 4y ago
  Transmitted anywhere in milliseconds also means transmitted to a lower cost country, so be careful with this flexibility.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - ornornor 4y ago
    Outside of the bean counters, I’ve never heard anything good about the outcomes of any outsourcing project.
    - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
      > I’ve never heard anything good about the outcomes of any outsourcing project Cloud computing.
      - ornornor 4y ago
        Isn’t it made by teams of EU and US engineers at amazon for the most part? These jobs stayed in the EU/US and didn’t go to sweatshops in LCOL countries.
- rufus_foreman 4y ago
  Sounds like hell to me, I left home at 16.
fleddr 4y ago
"Netherlands enjoy the highest subjective measure of life satisfaction among all OECD countries. Perhaps one reason is that their mothers are also among the most likely to work part-time." I'm from the Netherlands and can confirm that the 1.5 model is very common. Typically the man has the full-time job and the wife works part-time and combines it with care for the children on the other days. On days where both parents work, often grandparents help out, if not possible it's daycare, which soon will be made free. Cynical people may think of it as a semi-old-fashioned model, but I couldn't disagree more. I know many such couples and these women see this as a "best of both worlds" situation where they both contribute to society and have invaluable quality time with their children. Some may start to work more hours once the kids are in school, but many just stay on this lifestyle, or then proceed to take care of aging parents. Quite a lot have a job in care, which means altogether their lives evolve around being with people and caring for them. They want to live this way and provide an invaluable service to family and society. Men often have a parent day, which is one day of unpaid leave per week for the first 2 years. Another variation of the model is 2 x 4, where both parents work 4 days as it slowly gets more acceptable for men to work part-time too. The important part is of course to have options, so that each can find their own ideal balance.
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  > Cynical people may think of it as a semi-old-fashioned model, but I couldn't disagree more. I think it's beautiful for one parent to set aside more time for raising children. The part that's old-fashioned is the assumption that this person will be the mother. Your comment makes it sound like full-time mothers and part-time fathers are still very uncommon.
  - numbers_guy 4y ago
    Doesn't "old fashioned" imply that it goes against the contemporary expectation? Yet the expectation is still the same as it ever was. Not sure why people like you want to pretend like the majority of women would ever be happy with a stay-at-home-husband.
    - 4y ago

47 points by see-also 4y ago

robg 4y ago

The homestead of the future is one where multiple generations live together while working remotely. Knowledge work had been reducible to bits for 20 years, now they can be transmitted anywhere in milliseconds, just in time for a family lunch or dinner or movie.

chromatin 4y ago
It sounds nice, but there are extremely large segments that keep society functioning that don't involve knowledge work and can't be done remotely. It's easy to forget how much it takes behind the scences to keep the machine humming smoothly.
- Gare 4y ago
  > It's easy to forget how much it takes behind the scences to keep the machine humming smoothly. Until your toilet gets clogged.
  - barrenko 4y ago
    Somewhat similar to climate crisis. If we shut off AC's globally for two days, we'd figure out the solution.
    - 8organicbits 4y ago
      Can you clarify?
    - Georgelemental 4y ago
      Here in France, a wealthy industrialized nation, most houses and buildings (even those of rich people) don't have AC. In my experience, this is typical of most of Europe. Then again, we have figured out the solution to the climate crisis, it's nuclear power
- pawsforthought 4y ago
  Indeed. It is a considerable oddity how very material the lives of us wealthy knowledge workers are, yet how immaterial our labor.
- barrenko 4y ago
  It will work for a lot of people, and further the divide we have going on now :D.
- nonameiguess 4y ago
  You don't need every person in the household to work remotely, just enough to be able to collectively handle the housework. You're more likely to cross that threshold with six adults than with two.
fleddr 4y ago
Transmitted anywhere in milliseconds also means transmitted to a lower cost country, so be careful with this flexibility.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ornornor 4y ago
  Outside of the bean counters, I’ve never heard anything good about the outcomes of any outsourcing project.
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > I’ve never heard anything good about the outcomes of any outsourcing project Cloud computing.
    - ornornor 4y ago
      Isn’t it made by teams of EU and US engineers at amazon for the most part? These jobs stayed in the EU/US and didn’t go to sweatshops in LCOL countries.
rufus_foreman 4y ago
Sounds like hell to me, I left home at 16.

fleddr 4y ago

"Netherlands enjoy the highest subjective measure of life satisfaction among all OECD countries. Perhaps one reason is that their mothers are also among the most likely to work part-time." I'm from the Netherlands and can confirm that the 1.5 model is very common. Typically the man has the full-time job and the wife works part-time and combines it with care for the children on the other days. On days where both parents work, often grandparents help out, if not possible it's daycare, which soon will be made free. Cynical people may think of it as a semi-old-fashioned model, but I couldn't disagree more. I know many such couples and these women see this as a "best of both worlds" situation where they both contribute to society and have invaluable quality time with their children. Some may start to work more hours once the kids are in school, but many just stay on this lifestyle, or then proceed to take care of aging parents. Quite a lot have a job in care, which means altogether their lives evolve around being with people and caring for them. They want to live this way and provide an invaluable service to family and society. Men often have a parent day, which is one day of unpaid leave per week for the first 2 years. Another variation of the model is 2 x 4, where both parents work 4 days as it slowly gets more acceptable for men to work part-time too. The important part is of course to have options, so that each can find their own ideal balance.

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
> Cynical people may think of it as a semi-old-fashioned model, but I couldn't disagree more. I think it's beautiful for one parent to set aside more time for raising children. The part that's old-fashioned is the assumption that this person will be the mother. Your comment makes it sound like full-time mothers and part-time fathers are still very uncommon.
- numbers_guy 4y ago
  Doesn't "old fashioned" imply that it goes against the contemporary expectation? Yet the expectation is still the same as it ever was. Not sure why people like you want to pretend like the majority of women would ever be happy with a stay-at-home-husband.
  - 4y ago