4 ms·

Basically every study shows a four day week works best. The issue is why we never go with what the study shows.

t-writescode 5mo ago
Because if we did we’d have universal healthcare, 4 day work weeks, WFH where possible, walkable cities, and a lot more housing, and every single one of those things makes it harder for abusive jobs to control their employees.
- toomuchtodo 5mo ago
  Progress is a functioning of effort, time, and luck. It’s a marathon. Keep grinding. Success is proven possible.
  - amelius 5mo ago
    We're all in competition with each other. One person works 4 days, another person still working 5 days puts them out of business. Reality is more complicated but in the end there is no way around this basic fact.
    - toomuchtodo 5mo ago
      Labor law changes reduce the work week, as was done previously. How many people work six days a week for no additional pay beyond five days today? With population declines locked in almost globally (About 71% of the world’s population now lives in countries with birth rates below the replacement level needed to maintain population size), working age population decline, reducing labor supply, is also locked in. Reduced go forward labor supply reduction means labor power. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fertility-rate-of-world-populations/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fertility-rate-of-world-pop... https://www.suerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/f_fa99ccdbea597263a88f27075bd6eb49_17385_suerf.pdf https://www.suerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/f_fa99ccdbe... The demographic future of humanity: facts and consequences [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44866621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44866621 - August 2025 (400 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47680794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47680794 (US specific citations)
- latexr 5mo ago
  > universal healthcare, 4 day work weeks, WFH where possible, walkable cities, and a lot more housing My my, seems like we gots ourselves a socialist o’er here. We don’t take kindly to your kind ’round these parts. What’s yer idea? Improve folks lives? Treat others with respect and dignity and give e’ryone meaning? Are ya cuckoo in tha head? Git him, boys.
cluckindan 5mo ago
By inductive logic, a zero day week works best.
danielmarkbruce 5mo ago
"study"... The replication crises in science has shown that most studies are total bs. So we probably don't want to go with them.
- ktallett 5mo ago
  How does that differentiate from a boss or a company philosophy stating a 5 or 6 day week is better? With no reliable metric on better, other than ancedotal evidence. It's not as if it's repeatable experimentation.
  - danielmarkbruce 5mo ago
    It doesn't, but in the case where a boss or company say it, at least we know it's bs. Do you believe something because your company or boss says so?
zurfer 5mo ago
Naive question but if it works best wouldn't companies that have a four day work week outperform theirs peers and because of that grow faster, and become more common? I see the opposite in most startups that have a 6 day work week to get ahead of the "slowly moving" 5 day work week competition.
- ktallett 5mo ago
  In what metric do they get ahead? I think this is the key. What many visualise as getting ahead primarily seems to be fund raising or having a higher monetary value. Especially in startups where the largest mouth, the biggest blagger, or the quickest to mention a buzz word gets you more funding. Being closer to your end goal, with an adoptable product that improves society, is really the only metric that matters.
- latexr 5mo ago
  Think of it like a sprint versus a marathon. If you run at full speed you can get farther than someone keeping a steady pace in the same amount of time, but you’re going to tire yourself out and become slower. You’ll lose in the long run despite looking very “productive” at the start. Similarly, have you ever been “in the zone” and worked non-stop on a fun project, being super-productive for a full week or even multiple weeks, but then “crashed” (or even burned out) and your output got worse? New companies are on a race against the clock. At the beginning everything is a cost, you’re constantly losing money. So you plough through to survive until you become stable. Then you need to scale back and take it slower to allow yourself to recuperate and keep going. Also, keep in mind that small companies can often be very productive simply by having fewer employees and “red tape”. You can have an idea, send a message to someone else, get an immediate OK and get going. When a company gets too big and has lots of processes to keep things running, a lot of effort is wasted on even getting started.
- dbetteridge 5mo ago
  In a perfect free market, like a spherical chicken in a vacuum. Maybe. Problem is there's no such thing, monopoly powers, government subsidies, inter-company issues, contracts. All these things can mean that a less functional, more wasteful and less productive organisation performs (in the sense of the metric that companies care about , line go up) better than a 4 day week startup.

Because if we did we’d have universal healthcare, 4 day work weeks, WFH where possible, walkable cities, and a lot more housing, and every single one of those things makes it harder for abusive jobs to control their employees.

toomuchtodo 5mo ago
Progress is a functioning of effort, time, and luck. It’s a marathon. Keep grinding. Success is proven possible.
- amelius 5mo ago
  We're all in competition with each other. One person works 4 days, another person still working 5 days puts them out of business. Reality is more complicated but in the end there is no way around this basic fact.
  - toomuchtodo 5mo ago
    Labor law changes reduce the work week, as was done previously. How many people work six days a week for no additional pay beyond five days today? With population declines locked in almost globally (About 71% of the world’s population now lives in countries with birth rates below the replacement level needed to maintain population size), working age population decline, reducing labor supply, is also locked in. Reduced go forward labor supply reduction means labor power. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fertility-rate-of-world-populations/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fertility-rate-of-world-pop... https://www.suerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/f_fa99ccdbea597263a88f27075bd6eb49_17385_suerf.pdf https://www.suerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/f_fa99ccdbe... The demographic future of humanity: facts and consequences [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44866621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44866621 - August 2025 (400 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47680794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47680794 (US specific citations)
latexr 5mo ago
> universal healthcare, 4 day work weeks, WFH where possible, walkable cities, and a lot more housing My my, seems like we gots ourselves a socialist o’er here. We don’t take kindly to your kind ’round these parts. What’s yer idea? Improve folks lives? Treat others with respect and dignity and give e’ryone meaning? Are ya cuckoo in tha head? Git him, boys.

cluckindan 5mo ago

By inductive logic, a zero day week works best.

danielmarkbruce 5mo ago

"study"... The replication crises in science has shown that most studies are total bs. So we probably don't want to go with them.

ktallett 5mo ago
How does that differentiate from a boss or a company philosophy stating a 5 or 6 day week is better? With no reliable metric on better, other than ancedotal evidence. It's not as if it's repeatable experimentation.
- danielmarkbruce 5mo ago
  It doesn't, but in the case where a boss or company say it, at least we know it's bs. Do you believe something because your company or boss says so?

zurfer 5mo ago

Naive question but if it works best wouldn't companies that have a four day work week outperform theirs peers and because of that grow faster, and become more common? I see the opposite in most startups that have a 6 day work week to get ahead of the "slowly moving" 5 day work week competition.

ktallett 5mo ago
In what metric do they get ahead? I think this is the key. What many visualise as getting ahead primarily seems to be fund raising or having a higher monetary value. Especially in startups where the largest mouth, the biggest blagger, or the quickest to mention a buzz word gets you more funding. Being closer to your end goal, with an adoptable product that improves society, is really the only metric that matters.
latexr 5mo ago
Think of it like a sprint versus a marathon. If you run at full speed you can get farther than someone keeping a steady pace in the same amount of time, but you’re going to tire yourself out and become slower. You’ll lose in the long run despite looking very “productive” at the start. Similarly, have you ever been “in the zone” and worked non-stop on a fun project, being super-productive for a full week or even multiple weeks, but then “crashed” (or even burned out) and your output got worse? New companies are on a race against the clock. At the beginning everything is a cost, you’re constantly losing money. So you plough through to survive until you become stable. Then you need to scale back and take it slower to allow yourself to recuperate and keep going. Also, keep in mind that small companies can often be very productive simply by having fewer employees and “red tape”. You can have an idea, send a message to someone else, get an immediate OK and get going. When a company gets too big and has lots of processes to keep things running, a lot of effort is wasted on even getting started.
dbetteridge 5mo ago
In a perfect free market, like a spherical chicken in a vacuum. Maybe. Problem is there's no such thing, monopoly powers, government subsidies, inter-company issues, contracts. All these things can mean that a less functional, more wasteful and less productive organisation performs (in the sense of the metric that companies care about , line go up) better than a 4 day week startup.