# How much is man meant to work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 29, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315 "2012-02-29T05:40:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315/41 "2012-03-06T16:01:04Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > You have to find your passion. There’s something out there that resonates within you. Unfortunately, most folks don’t find it and settle for second best and as a result, they are not happy. > > Or as someone else (I forgot who) once said: Find what you love to do and let it kill you. Not everyone is passionately driven to do something; and even among those that are, not everyone is talented enough or has the luck or contacts to make their passion a bankable career. Those things that tend to engage the passions - such as the arts - are reasonably limited niches. Few are as passionate about (say) garbage collection, or filing forms - in short, fot the quotidian tasks that actually must be done. Worse, some things that engage the passions when done as a hobby, do not do so when engaged as a business. I discovered that the hard way as a young guy. I worked as a sculptor in my family’s studeo and eventually set up a studeo of my own - only to discover that, while I loved scupting, I hated marketing, dealing with wholesalers, suppliers and retailers, setting up craft show gigs, accounting, advertising, paying rent, dealing with lazy or stoned employees, etc. Then I discovered that what sells easily isn’t necessarily what I enjoyed making. The family studeo made more or less kitchy keepsakes aimed at specific professions - I wanted to make more elaborate, inventive things - only to discover that such stuff was of course a lot more labour-intensive and less appealing to the average customer, and the market would not absorb the extra costs (as the market for $100 stuff is very diferent from the market for $800 stuff). However, the killer was doscovering that, for maybe 20% of enjoyable sculpting, it was necessary to devote 80% of one’s time to things basic to any other small business - accounting, marketing, etc. Unless of course you have someone else do much of that stuff, as in an agent - but then, you must pay them (and in effect give them control). And that, for the privilege of a life of comparative poverty for a decade or more until you get known enough to have a market (if you are good and lucky). ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315/42 "2012-03-07T00:14:44Z")
The real world answer is that a man works as much as he needs. Any other answer really boils down to asking this question. He might need to work for survival of himself, his family, his country, etc., but it all boils down to what is needed. He might decide that he “needs” to work in order to get some luxury that he wants. Thus, he needs to work for it. ---
**Author:** ![RobotRevolution](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@RobotRevolution](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobotRevolution)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315/43 "2012-03-11T00:09:21Z")
As someone that no longer needs to work due to having enough to live off the interest (about ~2mil, most of it in real estate that pays rental $$) I have a very difficult time wanting to work. I imagine most people that aren’t involved in jobs they LOVE feel the same way. I inherited all of the money after one of my parents killed themselves, so I feel kind of guilty about this. Before their death, I was on disability due to a car accident that I didn’t cause (and still am disabled, but improving over time with physio!). My standard of living has increased tenfold since the death. Which makes me feel even guiltier. However, I can say with absolute certainty I am almost never bored. I constantly read and learn and absorb information. I have hobbies I enjoy and pursue. I just can’t ever picture myself when I’m physically healthy going to a 9-5 I didn’t absolutely love. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315/44 "2012-03-11T04:49:03Z")
> [@curioushat](#): > > Well, let me see how you allot your time. > > 8hrs/sleeping > 8hrs/working > 1hr/traveling to and from work > 7hrs/leisure. > > That is a shitty life. 17/24hrs you are either asleep or plodding through life. Well, sure, if you work 365 days a year. I don’t know anyone who does that. Realistically, even as a person who’s held a full time job his entire adult life, there is zero chance I will spend even half my life working. There are 168 hours in a week and in a heavy week I’ll work 50 of them. And I don’t work five days every week because I get vacation and holidays. Plus I’ll retire somewhere around 65. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315/45 "2012-03-11T16:36:36Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > If hunting and gathering was an intrinsically easy, we would all be hunterer-gatherers. There would have been no impetus to change. > > In other words, that is one very incorrect hypothesis. I too do not agree with this. The other explanation is that the farmers drove off the Hunter-Gatherers as they spread. > [@](#): > > But food is exhausted after awhile, which necessitates movement. Either the gatherers must expand their search radius each time they go out, or the camp must move. But this is already built into our genes. We _love_ to travel and move to greener pastures. Discover new horizons. > [@](#): > > Hunting is an exhaustive effort that can take days and days. I agree partly with this, 45 minutes is certainly not enough for hunting. But it also depends on the habitat.The plains indians and people living in the deserts certainly had a harder time hunting. But there are also alternative ways of hunting than tracking down the antilope, you wounded with your bow, for most of the day. It was, for instance, quite common to herd prey into traps or off cliffs. Then there is working with ordinary traps, as in poaching, and of course fishing. Which can also be done using fish traps. Once built and set up, all you have to do is check them every now and then. > [@](#): > > At night, someone has to keep an eye out for predators. The camp is never totally asleep. People take turns keeping watch. That’s work. That’s why we have dogs. Apparently the symbiosis with dogs is very very old. > [@](#): > > The biggest difference between their lifestyle and ours is that we think work ends at a set time and then we can go “live”. In other societies, working is not limited to 8 hours. It is distributed throughout the 24 hours of the day, with some down-time in between. I’d rather think that what they do is better described as “chores” with the occasional hard work put in. Still “chores” would probably also take up more than 45 minutes. By the way, where does this 45 minute figure come from? I always thought it was 4.5 hours. Still way less than the 8 hours of , for many people, mind numbingly boring an/or hard work we have to put in. > [@](#): > > Also, there is no such thing as “burn-out”. Unless your relatives really really love you, a person who is “burned-out” is ass-out. Burn-out is a construct of 21st century Western Civilization. Of course there was no burn-out. How can you get burn-out from 4.5 hours of work a day.😉 Also, most cultures would indeed take care of their uhmm.. “unemployed” or rather those that became unfit for ‘work’. Although that would naturally depend on how plenty your habitat was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-man-meant-to-work/614315.md?page=2)