This article touches on something that we may all feel intuitively, but it cites studies too. I think my work days do end up averaging around four hours of actual, creative, programming work. The rest is filled with reading hn, waiting on pipelines, chatting with colleagues, meetings... As much as I would enjoy being paid the same but being able to log off after lunch, I'm not sure we'll be able to see these elusive four hour work days anytime soon.
palata•3h ago
One question being: if you were asked to only work 4h per day, would you "work hard" on those 4h, or would you effectively work less because you HN would still be here, you would still wait on pipelines and chat with colleagues, and you would still have meetings?
Disclaimer: I'm all for working less of course :-). But that's a genuine question.
Mate4•2h ago
Perhaps my perspective is skewed by working mainly in the office in a massive corporation and that a lot of these 'time wasters' are something that seem like an outcome of the environment: you need meetings to make sure you don't step on each other's toes (and there are many toes around), the pipelines take a long while because there's a lot of code that needs to be built, chatting with colleagues happens because sometimes the requirements are not entirely clear. In this utopia where there are no such external factors, I think a consistent four hour focused work day is feasible. But it does seem too idealistic.
codingdave•2h ago
We already do see those four hour works days, though. You said it yourself - your days average around four hours of work. The rest is idle. It gets burned in odd ways at the office, but if you were at home, and burned those same amounts of time with walks and naps and whatnot, you would have the same level of productivity.
This article really makes it hit home that offices and the modern meeting culture that stems from them are the problem, not our output of work. Remote work with async communication is exactly what the article describes.
proc0•1h ago
This has to be the way to fix the most exploitative elements of capitalism. If EVERYONE works 4 hours then isn't it the case that everything would balance itself out, with exception of technological advancements. Maybe you don't get a new iphone or car every year, but instead every 4 years? It would allow everyone to live a better life at the expense of the ultra rich who are non-stop innovating with their armies of employees who work around the clock.
Taxation is not the answer, it's lowering the cultural standard for work, at the expense of slowing down product output a little, but who needs a new device every year.
Mate4•3h ago
palata•3h ago
Disclaimer: I'm all for working less of course :-). But that's a genuine question.
Mate4•2h ago
codingdave•2h ago
This article really makes it hit home that offices and the modern meeting culture that stems from them are the problem, not our output of work. Remote work with async communication is exactly what the article describes.