It’s a 40 hour work week, but add in commuting and chores and decent sleep and you’re left with a few hours left for other things.
Hard to build an identity around a few hours of something else.
Speaking only for myself, my more fulfilling hobbies feel like a zero-sum proposition when I factor in taking care of myself, my kids, my home, etc. What little leisure time activies I pursue are almost all pursued between the hours of 9 and 11pm, because that's the time I have.
I think the OP is right in a lot of ways, that work has replaced our other social outlets. But its also the case that just existing costs more, so time formerly spent on hobbies is now spent on basic lifestyle maintenance, and the time formerly spent on basic lifestyle maintenance is spent working, or commuting to/from work (because a lot of people can't afford to live near they work).
And yet, most people have hours every day available to spend watching movies, YouTube, etc. That is time that could be spent doing something fulfilling.
As someone who tries to spend most of my days after work making games, there are days I just don’t have the mental energy to do it. And there have been months where I haven’t worked on it at all, as work and things in my personal life get more stressful.
Its the same story as "I can't go to the bank if they're only open when I have to be at work", but for mental health rather than finances.
I wasn't making a judgment (though I wasn't explicitly not making one either), just saying that many people could use them. Hobbies are good identities, and many people feel a need to define themselves but struggle to do so.
That said, I do know people who complain about having very little time, but I know they spend 4 or 5 hours every day on television, video games, and social media. They don't own a home, they don't have kids, they get on the TV as soon as they get off their 40-hour-a-week job, and complain about how they can't afford the time to have hobbies. Excuses exist on a spectrum of reasonableness, and some excuses are more understandable than others.
The majority of people I know who really want to have fulfilling hobbies do have fulfilling hobbies. Many of them work long hours, also have kids, have to take care of their home, and the like. They'll still scrounge together a few hours a week to paint some Warhammer figurines and decompress.
Most people would also benefit from occasional therapy or a personal accountant. It's not accessible for everybody, but the fact remains.
I'm not sure if this has been found to be an effective leadership/management tactic … or if we sleepwalked our way in to this reality (a la ping pong tables), but it's not good.
Why wouldn't you want tie your identity to something like that?
Just to be clear: I have a few hobbies aside from work — I make music, DJ, paint, cook, hike sometimes. I have friends, and I'm also not a productivity maniac (I actually work in a 4 day workweek startup). But do I see my main job in the way I described above, and I wouldn't want to tie my identity to any other community or hobby. In all other aspects of my life I'm mostly just enjoying life, but at my work, I'm actively improving someone else's. When I worked in gamedev, I loved interacting with players and seeing how they enjoy my work. Now I make professional software and relish in the fact that I make other professional's work easier and more enjoyable.
May be people don't need other identities, but just more fulfilling jobs.
Because conflating _need for purpose_ and _need to pay rent_ can be tricky business: they don’t always join neatly.
Happy they do for you!
I'm happy to pay a month of my wages for a year of shelter. My rent is way, way higher than that.
In essence, you're paying back not only to people who work in construction, but to ask the people who made this city so desired, over many generations. It takes much more than a month of work per renter to create all the value that you get from living in New York or San Francisco.
If all you need is literally just shelter regardless of location, there's plenty of places around the globe where you could rent a perfectly good apartment for $300 per month.
If your purpose in life is caring for the infirm or teaching, or doing dance performances, society will not compensate you meaningfully in response.
What if your purpose doesn't align with society's definition of talent? Are you worthless as a human being?
What then, abandon your true purpose because of economics? These are rules of scarcity, not of life fulfillment.
From the perspective of the nebulous and not clearly defined 'society', sure.
The real question is why do you care about its judgements?
Even if the company as a whole adds value there are lots of pockets of politically charged actions e.g. for promotions. Like are we doing anything meaningful to society by building 1 of those Google projects that gets killed in a few months?
Most are. Unfortunately, people often don't recognize the immense benefit for society that some industries offer.
> Like are we doing anything meaningful to society by building 1 of those Google projects that gets killed in a few months?
Yes. Hindsight is 20/20, and making bets is (often, not always) worth it even if some fail in the end.
A few years back got very intensely into a new hobby that blossomed and it totally changed my quality of life.
At the same time, I wouldn't say I've drastically changed my hours. I work 40-50 hr weeks typically, I just stopped putting in the 60 hour ones that I felt I needed to. No one ever noticed or cared. It was always my own impulse to do that. Even though in my head, I felt like there was pressure to do it.
I really think it was just my brain knowing I didn't have anything else lined up for life, so it just kept lining up more work for me.
If all of a sudden that person was told four day work week had arrived, it wouldn't have made a difference. I'd just be there feeling I needed to work cause I didn't have anything else to do.
Recently, my health has prevented me from participating in the hobby. And unsurprisingly I find myself obsessing over work again...
We've lost religion and communities as things that define and provide structure and purpose, leaving us clinging to jobs.
Is this good? No! It's terrible! We should fix this!
However, I'm not convinced that workplace stress is a matter of hours … it may be a symptom of lack of life beyond work—and I don't mean in the "there's not enough time" sense.
I appreciate what Cal Newport advocates for, but it always feels a little surface.