So What alternatives are people having success with? the 40 hour work week sucks, but what else can you do that's better?

I guess part of it depends on what you personally have an issue with. But I can't see trading 40 hours of meaningless work for 80 hours of running my own business, or dropping out and living some nomad life. Or the constant hustle and living near poverty to be in arts or academic research .

That's something you probably have to figure out yourself, the answer is different for everyone. Doesn't have to be that drastic. Maybe the one obvious thing I often see a lot of people are reluctant about is quitting their job. If it's not fun just quit. Try a new company, if that isn't working either, quit and try again. At least something is changing, eventually you'll either find something good or figure out something else to do.

>eventually you'll either find something good or figure out something else to do.

Or they'll die of exposure on the streets, or worse. People, in general, can't be expected to solve fundamental problems of the distribution of wealth, opportunity, education, healthcare, food, property, knowledge, power, and comfort in our society by job hopping. The median job in America is a bullshit job for a petty dictator which is a direct result of terrible policy over decades.

The "or figure out something else to do" at the end of your comment is telling of these systemic problems, even if you did not intend it to be such a profound criticism of society and culture.

Yeah maybe, quitting and job searching can really be a horrible experience itself. I started considering a career switch and giving up on tech during my last one until I finally found a place that would hire me. Then that job burned me out and I turned pretty cynical about work and tech.

40 hours is an arbitrary number. There is no reason it could not be something less. The 8 hour workday is just a recent convention.

Don't recall where I read it, but it resonated with me intuitively: depression is the body's way of telling you that you need to make a change in your environment. Whether it's move to a different city, get a different job, a different girlfriend; something in your life right now isn't working for you.

It's problematic when you can't make those changes, e.g. you're young and still living with/dependent upon parents, or you feel you'd have to give up too much e.g. being close to your kids, or people are telling you to just take a pill and it will be better.

IDK about psilocybin, never tried it, seems like more snake oil honestly, there are no magic answers here.

> depression is the body's way of telling you that you need to make a change in your environment

That doesn't sound plausible, as one of the main parts of depression is often debilitating lack of motivation (much more than sadness or anxiety). So depressed people are usually the least likely to be able to independently make any kind of significant change in their life - they're already spending most of their "energy" on getting out of bed and following a routine.

Not to mention, establishing clear routines and minor goals is one of the main recommendations (outside medication) for dealing with depression.

Beyond that, I've found attempting to literally outrun emotional and phycological problems (by moving away) actually make them worse.

To be fair, these could also be symptoms of burning out or an otherwise toxic work environment, in which case changing job may be a part of the healing process. Unfortunately, people who suffer from depression will often need outside help to actually go through such a change.

Definitely makes sense and sounds like a super healthy response to depression to realize that something should change if you're very depressed. Might not be easy of course. I think psilocybin isn't snake oil because I don't think anyone is promising it as a cure, taking some might break you out of your normal mental state enough to make you realize all sorts of things, including that you might have to change a whole bunch to get better. Not a cure, just something that make you recognize the problem or at least the existence of some problem.