No more than 30 Hr Work Week
My Claim: Human beings should not be working more than 30 hrs a week.
Our human life is so incredibly short the fact we squander so much of it performing our various meaningless professions is a true tragedy in my opinion. I have worked more than 30 hrs in week on occasion and I have to say from personal experience it is a complete waste of time. It is a waste of time on two levels. Firstly it is waste of my valuable time as a human being. As I mentioned a few sentences ago life is short and you I see it as my duty to attempt to enjoy it as much as possible. I find work to be huge deterrent to me fully enjoying my life. Imagine if each day instead of 2 extra hrs of work you took 2 hrs to try to enjoy life. Maybe you went for hike in the forest, read a great book, or perhaps just watched 15 videos of people fucking animals (beasttube.com). Honestly wouldn’t those two hours of personal enjoyment time make a world of difference in your state of mind?
Besides just wasting my time it is also wasting my employer’s time. The human brain can only handle a certain amount of work per week (my calculations come out to about 7.5 hrs per day 4 days a week). The rest of the time the mind is just fucking off. Even if you are doing shit for work you aren’t doing it efficiently, your spacing off thinking about fucking the girl down the hall or who to play on your fantasy football team. You can’t work at top productivity 60 hrs a week, it is impossible! Though this may be very hard to believe I am actually a pretty prolific employee. Do I work a lot of hrs, not really? Do I even care about my job, not one bit? How am I able to be so productive you might ask? The answer is short busts of super efficiency brought on by my self imposed lenient work schedule. If I know I am going to be playing golf Tuesday morning and taking Friday off there is built in incentive to get as much done as possible when I’m at my desk. I really don’t consider myself lazy; a lazy person just doesn’t do anything. I am always doing something (fly fishing, hiking, or watching videos of girls having sex with horses at my favorite website Beasttube.com), the fact that I chose to do all my work related activities in a shorter span of time just means I am efficient. Efficiency should be rewarded not destroyed by standard mandatory hourly work schedules. I have worked 60 hrs in week a time or two and I have also had my share of 25 hr work weeks and to be honest I got just about the same amount done.
What is my point you might ask, I think it is pretty clear I probably don’t have one in this case. Just stop showing up for work on Friday and see if your life doesn’t take a strong turn for the better. And by better of course I mean you will be immediately fired and free to fully enjoy Beasttube.com 24 hrs a day!!!
Monday, March 17 at 4:46 pm
I have been working like 60+ hours a week lately, but when you factor in the amount of time I spend on on http://www.beasttube.com it is more like 30 hours.
You are preaching to the quior though on this one. I mean, look how passionate you are about this and you only work like 30 hours a week and for only 6 months a year. Think how you would feel if you were working beyond 30 hours?
Given the state of the economy, and that the Fed is about to drop the interst rates another 3/4 a point, and the tailspin the US is about to go into, I am just happy to have a job right now. I predict that things are about to get a little ugly. (seriously though, the Fed needs to quit cutting the rates, last week they did it, and the stocks had a 1 day boom and a week later they are back exactly where they were in the first place)
I think the reality is that if you want to live like a normal human being, and be able to work a typical amount (30 hours a week) you need to move to a small town. You just cannot afford to live in Seattle even with a real job.
I propose that we all move to a small town and take it over within the next 10 years. If we just accumulate as much wealth as possible, the shift in economies should allow us to buy a decent chunck of some crappy small town. We could then build our own peradise, with our own rules.
I will be the towns tax accountant, Parker can start a local scotttrade branch? (more likely will sell tractors), Westberg can be the town lawyer/judge, Colwell musician, Spencer drug dealer, Eric Levine Janitor, Zach McPherson not president, and Corey as mayor?
Monday, March 17 at 4:47 pm
But really, don’t tell Eric or Zach about the town, I don’t want them to ruin it.
Tuesday, March 18 at 9:29 am
Kevin I am honestly ready to move forward with the plan of taking over a small town. I know you are probably joking, but I really think this is a viable plan.
Tuesday, March 18 at 10:37 am
Start targeting some prospect towns.
Tuesday, March 18 at 12:18 pm
Quit your jobs and pack your bags!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-08-land-cover_x.htm
Tuesday, March 18 at 1:08 pm
Corey, let me know if your dad needs a satellite office set up in Seattle, and if he starts paying wages in any form of usable currency. I like his work style.
I was interested in the above article until I realized it was in Kansas, I could probably be easier convinced to take land in the mountains of Pakistan. If this land grab doesn’t happen within 25 miles of an ocean, count me out. I’m not looking for a beach or anything, I just mean that the “heartland” of this country scares the shit out of me.
MicroNations are where its at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronations I am pretty sure after you found your town you can just declare yourself a sovereign country. Maybe corey could find some Native American loophole and we could gain sovereignty that way, and build a casino and hunt whale. Incidentally, I would be concerned with our ability to provide universal healthcare to all our subjects.
Tuesday, March 18 at 1:30 pm
We should start our Micronation somewhere that could potentially be a resort town, but where there isn’t actually anything there yet.
the Chicks we know could run some sort of small resort/ Bed & Breakfast. Parker could run the Gas Station. I’ll run the pizza joint/bar. Corey can take people on snowmobile/meditation/fly fishing excursions.
That way our town actually provides us with some sort of income.
Tuesday, March 18 at 1:55 pm
Or we could go international, and hit up like Costa Rica or something? If we do that I have dibs on the smoothie stand.
Tuesday, March 18 at 5:05 pm
I think you are envisioning us having our own cult community. That may be pretty sweet, but I was thinking more along the lines of creating a regular small town that we make badass.
Although a self-suficient town where we just barder with eachother might be kind of cool, it sounds like to much work.
For us to reach our ultimate goal of the easy life at 30 hours a week, we need to draw outsiders in to spend money on our businesses. This is why I recommend building a resort community.
I also recommend we build a community BBall court, BBQ, firepit, stage for live outdoor rockband performances, etc., and that we constantly party.
Tuesday, March 18 at 7:56 pm
Sorry Kev I deleted my comment above because I hated it. It was one of those times were I spent an hour writing and I didnt agree with it or find it interesting at all but i posted it anyway in an attempt to legitimize wasting an hour after work on it.
I absolutely love your idea of resort community though. I’ve actually put quite a bit of thought into a meditation/fly fishing retreat center. Getting a group of guys together and making any sort of resort community would be pretty amazing though. Really just think about what life would be like if we actually took a chance and tried something like that. I think if we all actually decided to do it I could probably get financing to get it off the ground.
Maybe we could tie our new internet fame into this resort community idea. How does a resort community where you get fucked by a dog sound??? Huh Beasttubers sounds pretty good doesn’t it???
Wednesday, March 19 at 11:10 am
I think of work a lot like school.
Some kids work 20 hrs studying for a test and got a 3.0, I studied for 2 hrs and got a 4.0. In our much beloved capitalist system that is the way things work. The fact is I am smarter than that person. Is it fair, no. Should we do something to change it, in my opinion probably yes.
Now with regard to work some people work 60 hrs a week to get X amount of work done, I can work 20 hrs a week and get the same X amount of work done. Some people are stupid, or ineffecient so I understand why 40 hrs of work is needed. Some people need that entire amount of time to do the standard allowable amount of work. I am relatively smart and as I have stated before am super effecient. Now when we are talking about work instead of just taking my 4.0 (happy life where I have all my needs provided for) capitalism tells me I should work 60 hrs so I can get a 12.0. That is where the problem comes in for me.
The great thing about Capitalism is that it does reward people for increased productivity, if you are more economically productive you get more money. I don’t really want a bunch of money though. I personally would much rather take my increased productive in the form of time to enjoy my life rather than in wealth. I am having a hard time locating this option right now. I know that I can get a 100k job working 50 hrs a week, where is my 50k job working 25 hrs a week. There is nothing economically wrong with having 2 part time people doing a great job 25 hrs a week is there?
Wednesday, March 19 at 6:01 pm
The problem is that when you get into a competitive industry, like accounting, there are a lot of smart people that also work really hard. In school, it is set up so that a bunch of kids can get a 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, and everybody is happy.
At work, you have to make sure you are doing as well as the guy sitting next to you, and if he is smart and dedicated, that means you are skrewed.
As long as you are working for somebody else, I am pretty sure you can count on them wanting you to do more for less. The key is to work for yourself.
How do you make that happen? I’m not sure, but I think that the answer lies in Panama.