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by ZeroGravitas 1479 days ago
If you make the same argument for people spending time in the office, you might see the problem.

It's a race to the bottom. Sure that one guy with no friends or family has nowhere else to go, so he doesn't care, but if he gets rewarded for it, everyone else gets dragged in and we've decided that long hours aren't productive anyway, and certainly don't replace the time spent with friends and family.

Taking risks is another, more extreme, example. What if someone has terminal cancer or just doesn't care if he lives? There's probably many jobs they can do faster since they're not trying particular hard to stay alive.

It's maybe harder to see the problem when someone is super keen on their work, but I think we'd all be better off if they channelled that energy into something else of equal mental stimulation separate from their work.

1 comments

Of course people shouldn’t be paid more just because they spend more time in the office. But if they also get more done, and learn more, then what’s wrong with that leading to better pay and more opportunities?

If you value other things over work but are incapable of making that choice if others are rewarded for hard work, then that’s your problem. Seek therapy or something.

We can't even reward people correctly for effort in the real world, that's why you need to spend time marketing your success on top of the actual effort of doing them, and why people are so wedded to hours spent on task rather than any real life metric of success.

Please dont mess up the lives of people who live in the real world for something that barely works in theory.

> Please dont mess up the lives of people who live in the real world for something that barely works in theory.

Again: If you can’t make your life choices in line with your values if there are incentives for hard work, then that’s your problem.