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A comment on We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015). Parent comment

Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by renewiltord on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @04:39AM (#23973671)
That's because every day has 16 hours of living in it. Every hour is precious. 16 hours is enough to do all of those things.

About my favourite thing about Europe vs America (maybe even just SF) is how much the people I work with care about doing things. It's not even for anyone else. It's like that scene in The West Wing where Sam Seaborn is told he doesn't have to finish a speech, but he looks up and says, "I just. I just want to nail this."

I love working with people like this.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by cloogshicer on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @04:52AM (#23973752)
The problem isn't time though, it's energy. Even if the day might have 16 hours, you're still limited on energy.
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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by renewiltord on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @05:04AM (#23973808)
An interesting take on life extension is stimulant drugs. TANSTAAFL but if you live the crucial years of your life at 100% instead of 75% and you die at 60 instead of 80, you actually break even in how much life you led, even though you had 20 fewer years.
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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by cloogshicer on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @05:19AM (#23973885)
I don't think it's possible, or at the very least sensible to attempt quantifying life like this. Personally, I wouldn't want to live this way.
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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by renewiltord on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @05:27AM (#23973940)
To each their own, but I think two hours with my loved ones over one hour with my loved ones is a quantifiably superior option.

May we both be happy through our chosen methods.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by cloogshicer on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @06:30AM (#23974251)
> I think two hours with my loved ones over one hour with my loved ones is a quantifiably superior option.

It's not that simple though. There are so many assumptions in this statement, that aren't easily proven/disproven. Is two hours of kissing your partner really better than a minute of kissing? Are the circumstances also relevant? Maybe two moments aren't even comparable at all?

You seem to have (as so many people do nowadays) the assumption that all of life is completely quantifiable, measurable (as soon as we have the technology). Theory of science shows that this is a belief, which can never be proven or disproven.

Personally, I believe the opposite, that no matter how great our technology gets, there are certain things, that will never be measurable.

So I disagree with your above statement, that one of them is the quantifiably superior option. I think they can't be compared at all.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by wpearse on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @04:42AM (#23973689)
Are you suggesting that Europeans don't care about doing things?!
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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by renewiltord on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @04:49AM (#23973737)
In English, "how much" is used to express degree. So, for instance, if I said "A marked difference I noticed between driving in San Francisco and in Mumbai was how much honking I heard in the latter" what that means is "There was significantly more honking in Bombay than in SF". Concluding "there is no honking in SF" would be reaching beyond what is stated.

And I'm suggesting exactly what I said. I didn't make any claims about nationality or ethnicity. It isn't some racist claim that a European can't do it. It's a claim that in Europe I didn't see this as much as in SF (where way more people were like this irrespective of national origin).

But all this is a waste. The sentence structure is a classic from the '90s: Are you really saying "thing that person wasn't saying"?!! Are you really comparing "thing that no one was comparing" with "other thing"?!

Pity.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by wpearse on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @05:03AM (#23973805)
My comment was part jest, part awe. I clearly read too much into what you were saying. Apologies.
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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by renewiltord on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @05:06AM (#23973820)
All good. The back and forth of speech allows for lower-effort clarification so I'm sure this interaction would have done better in real life.
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