Paul Millerd
@pmillerd
I suspect we are at some sort of leisure tipping point. A shift that happens when less than 50% of weekday time is dominated by work. A huge number of remote workers are there. And a huge flood of retirees. Is this a good thing? I suspect not in the short term. Our world is still dominated by economic and work narratives.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Disagree. Most people actually want to work as hard as they can, modulo health/talent etc., at a meaningful outlet for effort. Most checking-out/laying flat/quiet quitting isn't a positive preference for leisure. It's lack of outlet for meaningful effort. Even retirees and invalids. Within their limits they want to effort-max. Even mediocrats like me. We don't solve for *excellence* or *efficiency* or *optimality* crafting a strategic slacking posture is actually a kind of thoroughness-oriented effort-maxing. The principle of following the path of least resistance is true, but it is NOT the same thing as least effort. Resistance is a function of the direction you choose to go, not the effort you're willing to put out.
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Paul Millerd
@pmillerd
hmm i think the word leisure trips you up when i use it i agree with what you are saying im just saying formal work is becoming a smaller part of peoples lives (labor hours have been dropping pretty consistently), and shifting back and forth between "at work" and "working on stuff" will be an interesting challenge
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I think there's still an element of disagreement here. I think formal/informal is mostly a red herring, and I don't think I have as much of a visceral allergic reaction to institutional scripts etc. Possibly it has to do with how much effort goes towards "personal life enrichment" vs. more general kinds of effort. I don't think people actually want as much personal-life enrichment as they claim or think.
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Paul Millerd
@pmillerd
i think you are in a beef deficit 😂 I completely agree - if you look at time use surveys with retired people, mostly people add a lot of TV watching and passive entertainment, I don't think people will suddenly start doing deep blog posts or chasing curiosity - I actually don't really know what it means for the future. i suspect its disorienting for many this was sparked based on this recent time use survey >30M "full time" remote workers are working about 5ish hours a day. i found that surprising If theres diagreement I think you underestimate how different formal + informal work feels because youve been so curiosity driven for so long. i would claim its much different and many retirees I talk to say that too https://warpcast.com/pmillerd/0x871cbab0
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
🥊🥊🥊🥊 beefbeefbeef haven't yet read your new book, but I basically think the pendulum has swung too far and is about to undergo a correction, and not just because boomer bosses want people back in offices I do think what you're trying to evangelize will in some sense always be a minority fringe, not mainstream philosophy people are sick of main characters, but not of grand narratives... too often personal lifestyle design ends up meaning scaling ambitions down to personal scale
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