[polisaez]

I was looking for facts to disprove your point, but it seems we actually work more than our ancestors.

Medieval folks and hunter-gatherers had plenty of time off. It wasn't until the industrial revolution that we started extending our workweek.

Here's a nice summary of how the workweek looked like, from the AskHistorians subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1rf0lb/comme...

[Gigachad]

I think the FIRE movement is a response to how absurd this is, but it feels kind of wrong that you have to front load all of the saving for your whole life in the first 30 years.

I'd love to work 3 days a week now and be paid a livable amount, rather than grind 5 days a week, getting paid more than I need so I can retire fast. But tech companies don't want you for 3 days a week, its 5 or nothing for most of them.

[mattlondon]

Well many places allow you to do 80% time (at least in the UK)... but you get 80% pay, 80% bonus, 80% holiday accrual etc too.

And from experience it seems that 80% people need to try damn hard to actually keep it at 80% and not get sucked into doing more to "keep up".

[aranelsurion]

IDK about UK but in Germany it’s the law that employees can request 80% work at 80% pay and can’t be denied except for significant operational reasons and such.

As you said, it can be a double edged sword to be the 80% worker in the otherwise 100% team.

[sobani]

> it seems we actually work more than our ancestors.

Only if you count the hours worked for the local lord and forget about all other mandatory work like:

- growing your own food

- cooking/prepping said food (44 hours per week)

- maintenance

- spinning, weaving and sewing clothes

https://acoup.blog/2025/09/05/collections-life-work-death-an...

https://acoup.blog/2025/10/10/collections-life-work-death-an...

[dml2135]

I get your point, but people still have chores to do today. Ultimately, there is a big difference between doing work for yourself, and doing work for someone else for a wage.

In one instance you keep the value you are creating, in the other it goes to your employer.

Given the choice between the two I would much prefer to work for myself, as a matter of dignity.

[knownjorbist]

I don't think this is an accurate picture for a number of reasons, first and foremost that these people regularly died from trivially preventable reasons. That luxury today takes a lot of effort from a lot of people.

I'm pretty sure most of white collar HN crowd isn't being ground into dust. It'd be cool to work less though!

[yladiz]

Well yeah we didn’t have antibiotics and other knowledge we have now. But that doesn’t change the fact people worked less in the past.

[kelseyfrog]

But we have iPhone.