Working for money is doing something others want you to do in exchange for money.
In the west typically 2/3 of your day is free, as are weekends (and I see plenty of people commenting during work hours too).
I am a worker myself, but maybe because I have a past in actual physical labour I realize how much of a brat I have become now, being able to walk around, grab coffee, chat, stare mindlessly out the windows and browse HN while being paid handsomely to create software.
It's a normal human tendency to consider our own particular situation as representing the "average" or "normal". It's quite common for people who live privileged lives (such as most people here) to not recognize that they are living privileged lives.
It's very good to remember how lucky most of us are, and how unusual our circumstances are.
I think of it many times a year, how lucky I am to no longer need to showel manure or move wet grass using a pitchfork to earn a fraction of what I do today.
There are pros and cons of course. I am noticing my health declining somewhat since working inside versus physically. I am not as strong especially in weird muscle groups. I am more sore, prone to injury, and inflexible. I don't get as much sun exposure. My eyesight is declining quite a lot since I am bad about getting up off my desk and staring at something far away a few times an hour. My hands and wrists are going from spending a lot of time typing. Maybe I am monetarily richer, but certainly not physically richer. Maybe mentally I am poorer too considering the stresses of work follow me home now versus staying at the job site.
It makes sense. We evolved to be laboring outside, staying in shape with physical work, keeping our bodies active, constantly moving, sleeping with the sun versus an alarm clock. Even elders in tribes that still practice traditional hunting are remarkably active compared to elders in the west. We didn't evolve to be troglodytes, unmoving in an artificial cave for 95% of the day, but ironically these are the types of work our society disproportionately rewards.
Last time I saw this mentioned on HN, someone had a mental breakdown and told people to stop bringing it up because they were tired of hearing "sob stories".
Is browsing hn so different than a clerk reading the paper or a book or chitchatting with a coworker during some down time in the 1940s? Probably not. Downtime is part of work unless you work by the piece. Even when I worked outside labor jobs, there was plenty of downtime e.g. waiting for the 1 skid steer to move some stuff before you could do anything else. That being said its not like 2/3 of your day are truly free, you are omitting the sleeping, the cooking, the eating, the washing the dishes, the commuting, etc, that quickly sucks up your time. I know someone who works 9am-7pm. Maybe 1-2 hours of their day are truly free during the week. Plus on the weekends thats when you typically play catchup, and do all the chores and errands you'd been neglecting during the week due to work.
In the west typically 2/3 of your day is free, as are weekends (and I see plenty of people commenting during work hours too).
I am a worker myself, but maybe because I have a past in actual physical labour I realize how much of a brat I have become now, being able to walk around, grab coffee, chat, stare mindlessly out the windows and browse HN while being paid handsomely to create software.