<story><title>The compelling case for working less</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20171204-the-compelling-case-for-working-a-lot-less</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Spearchucker</author><text>Age fixes that. Used to feel much the same. Now (approaching 50) I just couldn&amp;#x27;t give a shit anymore. A friend I&amp;#x27;ve grown distant from over the last 4 years or so bought a 911 GT3 RS last year. And suddenly I hear from him. And I marvel at the waste. Purchases like that are meaningful on only two days - the day you buy it, and the day you sell it. I think a mid-20&amp;#x27;s me might&amp;#x27;ve liked a car like that for the sex it could get me.&lt;p&gt;Making more money than me is great. Really. If making more money than me is important to you I KNOW I&amp;#x27;m having more fun than you are. Somehow, somewhere in the last 5 years or so I&amp;#x27;ve become content. I scratch-build model cars now in my spare time, and that&amp;#x27;s where I compete - with myself. Crazy fulfilling.</text></item><item><author>kough</author><text>&amp;gt; Humans are happy if they are relatively well off compared to what they know.&lt;p&gt;This is super true. I&amp;#x27;ve been congratulating myself all month on my new job, paying me BIG BUCKS, compared to my friends. Well, just found out an old friend of mine also found a new job, getting payed literally twice as much as me. Now I&amp;#x27;m in a funk and it&amp;#x27;s irrational and stupid but I can&amp;#x27;t help but look at the same number in a totally different way.</text></item><item><author>spyckie2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m convinced that our decision for how much effort to exert on work is not governed by the rational part of our brain. It&amp;#x27;s part primal - fear of insecurity and belonging to a social structure - part ego - accomplishment as confirmation of existence and your salary as a concrete number to compare favorably to others - and part culture and habit.&lt;p&gt;I also think overwork is a byproduct of a globally connected society. Humans are happy if they are relatively well off compared to what they know. With smaller societies, we know less and thus expect less from ourselves and our situations. But it becomes more difficult to remain this way as small societies get replaced with large social networks.&lt;p&gt;As a small example, you can be having a great life one day and feel woefully underpaid the next, and the only thing that has changed is your knowledge that in the valley, people get paid twice the amount you do in the UK.&lt;p&gt;I believe we need a generational understanding, acceptance, and appropriation of some of the unintended side effects of modern society.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>LeifCarrotson</author><text>Age can both help fix the problem of feeling well-off and exacerbate it.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s easy to be among the top in something in the little group that a kid in high school is exposed to.  Even in a big district, there are enough things to be good at that you can be the best at something esoteric.  Then you go to a good college for that thing, and come in thinking you&amp;#x27;re all that, and suddenly realize that you&amp;#x27;re average.  But college exposes you to the fact that there are innumerable niches in that thing, and you can pick one and be among the best at that niche from your graduating class.  You then go off to work, thinking you&amp;#x27;re hot stuff with your new top-of-the-line special credentials, and think you know more than everyone else in your field. Surprise: You don&amp;#x27;t.  You meet someone who&amp;#x27;s been in the field for 30 years and can solve the special problems that you&amp;#x27;re uniquely good at in their sleep.  And that guy has someone he calls when he can&amp;#x27;t figure something out.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s sort of like looking for records in a baseball game: There are so many possible records to set and precedents to break, that there&amp;#x27;s something new for the announcers to go on about in most every game. There&amp;#x27;s a lot of room to be unique, special, and valuable.</text></comment>
<story><title>The compelling case for working less</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20171204-the-compelling-case-for-working-a-lot-less</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Spearchucker</author><text>Age fixes that. Used to feel much the same. Now (approaching 50) I just couldn&amp;#x27;t give a shit anymore. A friend I&amp;#x27;ve grown distant from over the last 4 years or so bought a 911 GT3 RS last year. And suddenly I hear from him. And I marvel at the waste. Purchases like that are meaningful on only two days - the day you buy it, and the day you sell it. I think a mid-20&amp;#x27;s me might&amp;#x27;ve liked a car like that for the sex it could get me.&lt;p&gt;Making more money than me is great. Really. If making more money than me is important to you I KNOW I&amp;#x27;m having more fun than you are. Somehow, somewhere in the last 5 years or so I&amp;#x27;ve become content. I scratch-build model cars now in my spare time, and that&amp;#x27;s where I compete - with myself. Crazy fulfilling.</text></item><item><author>kough</author><text>&amp;gt; Humans are happy if they are relatively well off compared to what they know.&lt;p&gt;This is super true. I&amp;#x27;ve been congratulating myself all month on my new job, paying me BIG BUCKS, compared to my friends. Well, just found out an old friend of mine also found a new job, getting payed literally twice as much as me. Now I&amp;#x27;m in a funk and it&amp;#x27;s irrational and stupid but I can&amp;#x27;t help but look at the same number in a totally different way.</text></item><item><author>spyckie2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m convinced that our decision for how much effort to exert on work is not governed by the rational part of our brain. It&amp;#x27;s part primal - fear of insecurity and belonging to a social structure - part ego - accomplishment as confirmation of existence and your salary as a concrete number to compare favorably to others - and part culture and habit.&lt;p&gt;I also think overwork is a byproduct of a globally connected society. Humans are happy if they are relatively well off compared to what they know. With smaller societies, we know less and thus expect less from ourselves and our situations. But it becomes more difficult to remain this way as small societies get replaced with large social networks.&lt;p&gt;As a small example, you can be having a great life one day and feel woefully underpaid the next, and the only thing that has changed is your knowledge that in the valley, people get paid twice the amount you do in the UK.&lt;p&gt;I believe we need a generational understanding, acceptance, and appropriation of some of the unintended side effects of modern society.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>funnelsgun</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d argue that a 911 GT3 RS is not a waste. I would love to own a GT3, let alone a GT3 RS. Most GT3 RS owners are motorsport lovers, and use their GT3 RS for its true purpose. Motorsport and track events are also a great place to make new friends, as are organized road trips to incredible places in the world such as the PetrolHead tours.</text></comment>