[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":53},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f3pqgjxi7p1p2d":3,"recommended":22},{"title":4,"path":5,"date":6,"updated":7,"tags":8,"excerpt":11,"readingMinutes":12,"commentCount":13,"html":14,"comments":15,"next":16,"prev":19},"Why you and I will never have a 15 hour work week","\u002F2015\u002F06\u002Fwhy-you-and-i-will-never-have-15-hour\u002F","2015-06-22T22:25:00.003Z","2015-06-22T22:45:35.722Z",[9,10],"musings","startups","tldr: time to market . Recently Keynes' prediction of a 15 hour work week has resurfaced in discussions ranging from automation to basic income. Why exactly do we still work 40+ hours? I've seen many reasons*, but I'd…",1,0,"\u003Cp>tldr: \u003Cstrong>time to market\u003C\u002Fstrong>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recently Keynes' prediction of a 15 hour work week has resurfaced in discussions ranging from automation to basic income. Why exactly do we still work 40+ hours? I've seen many reasons*, but I'd like to focus on something I missed in all the articles and comments: \u003Cstrong>time to market\u003C\u002Fstrong>. Companies need their creative employees to deliver at peak performance to achieve the fastest time to market. How can they invent & ship their products as soon as possible? Sticking to a small, stable team that works about 40 hours per week per person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are two reasons for this:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>In creative professions the individuals are not easily interchangeable. You can have a different bricklayer continue your part of a wall the next day, getting another programmer to continue your piece of code is much more difficult. The same people have to work on a project for sustained periods of time.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>In the last century it has been demonstrated that you get most out of employees when they work close to 40 hours per week.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\u003Cp>So in conclusion: I don't think that innovating companies that want to stay competitive will ever let their creative people have a 15 hour work week. Nothing stops the employees from retiring at 40 though ;)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnews.ycombinator.com\u002Fitem?id=9761606\">discuss on HN\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>* These are the reasons I've seen:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>Wealth inequality: the top X % are reaping the benefits, the rest don't have the wealth to work less\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Work as leisure: people enjoy work more than their free time\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Bullsh*t jobs: we invent unimportant work to keep busy\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Consumerism: we want more and higher quality things\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n",[],{"title":17,"path":18},"Parsing 10TB of Metadata, 26M Domain Names and 1.4M SSL Certs for $10 on AWS","\u002F2016\u002F01\u002Fparsing-10tb-of-metadata-26m-domains\u002F",{"title":20,"path":21},"Browsers Should Shame ISPs for not Providing IPv6","\u002F2014\u002F05\u002Fbrowsers-should-display-ipv6-status\u002F",[23,28,33,36,40,43,46,50],{"title":24,"path":25,"note":26,"series":27},"Mapping out Dark Code","\u002F2026\u002F03\u002Fmapping-out-dark-code\u002F","2026",false,{"title":29,"path":30,"note":31,"series":32},"The software that I love","\u002F2022\u002F10\u002Fthe-software-that-i-love\u002F","Series · 36 posts",true,{"title":34,"path":35,"note":26,"series":27},"Navigating the Fog of War: Age of Empires, AI Agents, and the Rise of Dark Code","\u002F2026\u002F05\u002Fnavigating-fog-of-war-age-of-empires-ai\u002F",{"title":37,"path":38,"note":39,"series":27},"The Future of Programming Systems - four thoughts","\u002F2024\u002F09\u002Fthe-future-of-programming-systems-four\u002F","2024",{"title":41,"path":42,"note":39,"series":27},"Always Optimize the Feedback Loop","\u002F2024\u002F07\u002Falways-optimize-feedback-loop\u002F",{"title":44,"path":45,"note":39,"series":27},"\"Security Is Our Top Priority\" is BS","\u002F2024\u002F07\u002Fsecurity-is-our-top-priority-is-bs\u002F",{"title":47,"path":48,"note":49,"series":27},"10x teams","\u002F2025\u002F02\u002F10x-teams\u002F","2025",{"title":51,"path":52,"note":49,"series":27},"Hiring, from the Other Side","\u002F2025\u002F10\u002Fhiring-from-other-side\u002F",1792876809112]