Back in 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that with technological change and improvements in productivity, we’d only be working 15 hours a week by now. But while working hours have declined by 26 per cent, most of us still average 42.5 hours a week according to Eurostat figures.
One of the things Keynes underestimated is the human desire to compete with our peers – a drive that makes most of us work more than we need to. “We don’t measure productivity by how many acres we’ve harvested anymore, so the amount of time we spend working becomes a proxy,” says Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, visiting scholar at Stanford University and author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. “Overwork as a choice, as opposed to slaving away for subsistence wages, has been part of Western society since the Industrial Revolution when some predicted that automation would create an ‘excess’ of leisure time. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.”
この記事は BBC Focus - Science & Technology の Summer 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は BBC Focus - Science & Technology の Summer 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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IS IT SAFE TO RUN EVERY DAY, OR SHOULD I DITCH MY RUN STREAK TO SAVE MY KNEES?
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WHAT MAKES THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET SO GOOD FOR US?
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WHAT IS MEXICO'S BLUE HOLE?
The world's deepest blue hole (marine sinkhole) lies off the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. It's at least 420m (1,378ft) deep, but explorers still haven't found its bottom.
HOW CAN I TELL IF I'VE GOT HIGH CORTISOL LEVELS?
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THE LUNGFISH
In 1836, European scientists discovered a peculiar animal from the River Amazon that they struggled to identify. Its eel-like body was a few feet long and its air-filled lungs persuaded anatomists it must be a reptile.
ARE WE THE ONLY SPECIES TO HAVE BEEN THROUGH A STONE AGE?
The Stone Age might conjure up images of early humans, sitting around a campfire or hunting prehistoric beasts, but evidence shows that we're not the only species that has learned how to work with stone tools. Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use stone tools to crack open nuts.
Should we scrap daylight saving time?
Most of us look forward to the extra hour we get in bed every October, but researchers argue that changing the clocks twice a year harms our health
THE INTERNET OF ANIMALS
SCIENTISTS ARE USING ELECTRONIC TAGS AND SATELLITES TO TRACK WILD ANIMALS AND CREATE A DATA NETWORK THAT COULD HELP US ADDRESS THE BIODIVERSITY CRISIS
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