
In Praise of Idleness (1932) - EndXA
https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/
======
amilein7minutes
Bertand Russell, ahead of his time in his socio-political musings, as with
foundations of mathematics.

Although the essay begins as though he is advocating for leisure for some
privileged section of the society -- and one might especially suspect his
position is thus given he himself was part of the old aristocracy by birth --
he explains not only that idleness being a collective right will elevate the
society but also that it can be achieved. The time to have achieved it, in my
opinion, has already passed and yet we continue to be "foolish", as he puts
it.

His argument is so cogent that the following lines seem completely within
reach for the society and paint the idea of paradise"

>>> In a world where no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day
every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and
every painter will be able to paint without starving, however excellent his
pictures may be. Young writers will not be obliged to draw attention to
themselves by sensational pot-boilers, with a view to acquiring the economic
independence needed for monumental works, for which, when the time at last
comes, they will have lost the taste and the capacity. Men who in their
professional work have become interested in some phase of economics or
government will be able to develop their ideas without the academic detachment
that makes the work of university economists lacking in reality. Medical men
will have time to learn about the progress of medicine. Teachers will not be
exasperatedly struggling to teach by routine things which they learned in
their youth, which may, in the interval, have been proved to be untrue.

~~~
_mul0
Personal anecdote: was going through a tough time in my life (early 20s), and
was hating my major in school, dealing with a failed relationship, feeling
like my peers outclassed me in every aspect, etc.

Was suicidal.

Spent some time in mental health facilities (urban Canada, free and open
access for citizens). Surprised to see the diversity in the homeless/low-
income population (which makes up a significant chunk of the population in
mental health facilities). Former aerospace engineers, electrical engineers,
teachers...and of course, students (like myself).

My mental health is another story, not relevant to the topic at hand. The
mental health facilities where I had to spend time are relevant though: some
of them didn't allow devices (privacy concerns for others in the facility),
and there was a lot of time to kill. Time was spent ruminating, reading, and
writing (yay for the public library). Incredibly productive, in large part
because given where I was, I felt so far gone, that I no longer needed to
worry about what I was doing/how well I was doing it/what I _should_ be doing,
etc.

I had already failed in all those judgements/metrics. Now, nothing to do, but
to do.

Coming out of facilities, started to get caught up in old life (getting job
offer from internship firm). Could no longer tolerate it. Was ballsy, having
just literally faced death, and simply walked out of work. Ballsy because I
was literally throwing away my future. How would I earn money?

Ended up bunking with my parents. That's one edge I had even when I was in the
mental health facilities. Most of those homeless people I mentioned? Homeless
because of lack of family support.

Sat down at home. Reached out to professors doing work in the sort of things I
felt genuinely interested in. The rest has been reasonably productive history,
with more on the way.

Point of this anecdote: the value of leisure time is something I feel very
strongly about. It's what helped liberate me, and I only had it because of
privilege (parents). I find it rather sad that there are so many people that
disagree with arguments along the lines of "people are motivated by money, if
they didn't have to work for money, they wouldn't do anything with their
time".

And judgementalism regarding low-income/disabled/homeless individuals. Heard
this from a PhD student at uni, when I was telling him about how I always
worry I might end up homeless some day: "Don't worry, you won't end up
homeless. Everyone here (i.e. including me) is too smart/valuable to end up
homeless."

Couldn't help but laugh (internally). Remembered the Russian electrical
engineer who gave me an old Russian (Soviet era? not sure) text on linear
electrical circuits while I was in CAMH (Toronto). He was a patient there too.
I don't think he knew that I couldn't read Russian...

He was homeless, and was helping me pass the time the way he would. I still
have that book with me today.

I hope you're all okay, wherever you are. I believe in you, because I believe
in the power of the human spirit. We are driven by more than survival.

~~~
trevyn
Excellent points, thank you. And congratulations on the results!

I’m curious how relatively content-free entertainment works into your
calculus. It seems like a lot of people get sidetracked into it, and it is
becoming more psychologically compelling and personalized/varied over time. (A
lot of “sensational pot-boilers” are now being generated, as it were.)

~~~
throwanem
[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/01/19](https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/01/19)

------
dredmorbius
Numerous previous discussions, for those interested:

2013:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6513765](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6513765)

2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9015092](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9015092)

2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10310846](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10310846)

Just a selection, 38 in total.

~~~
dang
Also 2016:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10876730](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10876730)

2010:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1187681](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1187681)

~~~
Chinjut
Looks like this is an idea that resonates with people here! A cheering
antidote to many other "Sell your whole life away working and working on
businessy nonsense to make rich people richer and maybe, maybe get rich
yourself" strains of posts popular here.

[On edit: Oh, just noticed this comment itself duplicates
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21510442](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21510442)]

~~~
hliyan
I'm reminded of the saying, "Only the hungry man knows the taste of bread."
Many of us in HN are used to working long and arduous hours, and we've also
been told that it's a virtue to do so. To me it's no wonder the subject
resonates.

------
lordleft
One of my favorite facts about Bertrand Russell is that he invented type
theory in the context of math, and in that way contributed indirectly to
computer science.

------
foobar_
I think 4 day work week would be great to try out for a whole country. Also
reduces pollution now that I think about it.

~~~
throwaway_1635
This or simply more vacation( I would prefer more vacation but it's probably
harder to implement).

My controversial opinion is that half of the work is unnecessary (there's
surplus of labor that has many negative consequenes for society at large - in
short a lot of effort is pointless/missdirected as competition due to surplus
locks many people in slavery(serving others more than themselves)).

It could be easily solved by people working simply half of a year. Lack of
monopoly(all year round) on certain roles would benefit most enterprises and
people would have time for exploration/education.

My hope is that external pressure such as rising asia will give some room for
such progresive ideas in the west. They might even end up more competitive in
a world that rewards creativity(derivarive of leisure) and education.

Can only hope as we will get war instead.

------
roberttod
I love the idea of a 4 hour day, but it seems to be something that can only be
obtained by going freelance, consulting etc.

I wonder if a company could offer a stable income at a decent rate, but for
only 4 hour days or 4 day weeks, or have a mandatory 60 days vacation policy.
I'd be curious if such an offer would draw the best people from the talent
pool?

~~~
njarboe
Seems to me that working 40-50 hours a week for 10-15 years at high pay is a
more reasonable situation. Then have a big enough nest egg to do what you
like, a la mrmoneymustache.

~~~
JoeSamoa
Except life is now and cancer sucks. Also assumes you were able to achieve a
high paying career and not some dead end job that only pays enough to keep you
alive.

------
keyle
It's amazing how often this comes up on HN. Clearly this touches a lot of
people that read this site...

A reminder to listen to your body, and that you can't exhale without inhaling
first.

------
jhoechtl
This writing reminds me of Keynes who predicted in rhe 1930 that a 15 hour
work-week will be our future and many will suffer from boredom. This as well
as Russels musings didn't come true.

I blame marketing for inducing needs we wouldn't have otherwise and

the internet economy which prolongs an otherwise unsustainable lending system
in that goods can be traded which need not be made of tangible ressources.

~~~
tim333
There's also that people quite like working on the whole. I mean you've got
about 112 waking hours per week and if you only spend 15 working you've got a
lot left to fill with TV, HN or whatever.

------
hirundo
> I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm
> is caused by the belief that work is virtuous ...

That's a privileged position. I benefited from a work ethic of a grandfather
that knew poverty and hunger, via a father that grew up in the depression.
They would both be known as workaholics in this age, as they frequently, or
usually, worked from pre dawn to post dusk for the necessities. My father
stood in awe of his father's capacity for work, and I'm in awe of my father's.

My own child, if I had one, would be less impressed with his father's work
ethic, as I also grew up in a privileged position, without poverty or hunger,
due to my father's work. It would be better for a child to inherit my father's
work ethic than mine. Not for any virtue other than its capacity to promote
thriving and survival in an unstable future.

~~~
failrate
The article posits that the "privileged position" should be the common
position: that poverty and hunger can and should be eliminated, and then from
a position where everyone is so privileged to not starve to death, good work
that advances the human race may arise from those people who still work
despite it not being required to survive.

~~~
mjfl
Ah I see. All we need to do is eliminate scarcity. That shouldn't be too hard.

~~~
jdbernard
When some of us individually have a greater net worth than groups of
countries, yeah you'd think it wouldn't be too hard.

~~~
rayiner
The entire wealth of the world is only about $46,000 per person (this includes
things like the value of homes, personal assets like cars, etc.)

~~~
jdbernard
To be a little less tongue-in-cheek it seems to me that it is less a problem
of scarcity and more a problem of distribution. Food, for example, is this
way. Land, by and large, is also.

------
melling
Here’s another source if you hit the paywall:

[http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html](http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html)

------
underdeserver
Expression of the day: "topsy-turvy"

------
diminoten
Reminds me a bit of this chess article from 1849:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=90hGAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22a+perni...](https://books.google.com/books?id=90hGAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22a+pernicious+excitement+to+learn+and+play%22&pg=PA9&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false)

