Thursday, July 20, 2017

15-hour Work Week

"In the 21st century a 15-hour work week will suffice, as we turn instead to "how to use freedom from pressing economic cares."
John Maynard Keynes (1930)

Constraints are powerful. Liberty isn't the lack of constraints and rules, it is consent. More than consent, it is willing and enthusiastic participation. Liberty is belief and participation in the social contract you have with others. I love the idea of working towards a 15-hour constraint on the work week. Not on 'work' in the sense of doing something fulfilling, but work in the sense of doing an activity that can be monetised. The best chess players are neither people, nor computers. They are people using computers. Technology can play a part in freeing up our capacity to think about other things, because we have done the bits we have to, faster. I would love to get to the point where I can allocate just 3 hours a day to the stuff that meets the rules of money. Where the people I love also have lots of 'free time'. 3 focused, productive hours on stuff we can count, so we can spend the rest of the day on stuff that counts (but can't be counted).

No comments: