[SamoyedFurFluff]

> Before the modern age, most humans worked in agriculture. Really, really hard work, day in day out, no vacations, no sick days, you had to be there no matter the weather (except extreme events where your live would be endangered too much, probably).

Btw this is simply not true. People worked less in agriculture than a 9-5. You’d only really be working hard at specific times of the year- harvesting, seeding, etc. You’d be doing other things like working on the house, feeding various animals, churning butter or making clothes, etc, in the in-between.

[brabel]

Well I am not sure you're even disagreeing with what I actually said: I didn't say they did the same thing every day. Just that they had to work hard day in day out. And I am pretty sure that's the case, even if what they did a lot of the time is what you call the "in-betweens". Remember that most people would've lived under a local chief which surely would find lots and lots of things for them to do, like build monuments, train for war (which is a constant in every human society ever - ours may be the most peaceful society in all of human history actually), even compete in sports which could be a matter of life and death in those times. Women had to be really hard workers in those times as I'm sure taking care of kids/cooking/cleaning before electricity was discovered would've required much more time than they actually had.

[j4yav]

If we expand working in agriculture to mean everything humans do in addition to working in agriculture, then sure you might be on to something, but then we are sort of drifting away from the topic of what people do for work and whether it is rewarding. I think people are mainly disagreeing with the specific agricultural work part.

[coolThingsFirst]

As soon as i read this a beautiful and peaceful life flashed before my eyes.

[raducu]

> As soon as i read this a beautiful and peaceful life flashed before my eyes.

I lived such a life on my grandparents subsistence farm in early post-communist Romania, where we only bought store made bread and nothing else for months (and even that was optional, but store made bread tasted better than homemade).

I would LOVE to go back in time to that house on a summer night, 0 light pollution, starry night, just the crickets and occasional sound of the hooves of the cows or horse against the stone pavement in their yard when they went for a drink, or the dog being happy you visit him outside when you take a piss.

Or the late evening dinner on the high porch, people across the stone-wall fence returning from the fields in their horse pulled carriages overburdened with hay. Or the strong sense of community of the people gathered at their out of the gate benches smaltalking in the evening.

Or the rain-invocation rituals that involved splashing the village virgins dressed only in leaves in their late evening procession. Or the taste of milk straight after being milked out of the cow (I don't know how I never got sick), or the taste of fresh butter, or cheese or whey cheese.

Or fetching sheep milk from the herd manager over the bouncy wire bridge, starry night, accompanied by swarms of fireflies, wind whispering through the alder leaves.

Or the cows opening the iron gate with a thud in the evening when they return with the communal herd.

Or riding the horse without a saddle because my shoeless feet hurt from walking over freshly scythed grasslands.

Or returning with my grandpa late in the night from a long trip up the mountain to his lonely uncle's house. We brought him meaty treats and he showed us the squirrels in his roof attic.

Or to hear my grandparents extraordinary survival stories or stories about supranatural occurences.