The fact is, fellow hackers, as much as we'd all hate to admit it, hardly anyone here knows squat about hard work.
Go ahead and haul those 300 barrels up to the loading dock. Or hot tar that roof when it's 100 degrees out. Or open the restaurant every morning at 6:00 am and feed 2,000 people every day (yes, 7 days per week). And never miss a day or you don't eat. How about painting every room in every school building all day every day until you die. With nothing to look forward to except that maybe, just maybe, someday your grandchildren might go to college.
Don't get me wrong: I'm grateful that I sit at a desk in a heated/air conditioned office making something out of nothing. This was possible at no other time in history.
But please don't confuse long hours with hard work. Too many others really worked hard so that we wouldn't have to.
I totally agree with this. My brother is a nurse. Although he works for 8-9 hours straight and mostly standing up, when he gets home, he rests and relaxes. I on the other hand work 9 hours a day sitting on a chair. When I get home I still think of work and other freelance projects. I can't relax and I get tired even though I work sitting down :-/
A little off topic, but I've always felt that physical labour is undervalued in our society. I did some work for a removalist and that was alot harder (and probably more satisfying) than my better-paid office job. My perfect job would involve some blend of physical and knowledge work, but I'm sure the economists would point out the inefficiencies of such a job.
A typical day for me is entirely in front of a computer screen, but has over the past year occasionally involved physical work actually putting together a robot. I can attest, some time away from the PC doing mechanical work can be nice.
the people that usually do physical labour, generally have lower IQ. (i know, I am heavy generalizing), so to them it is ok.
For a very smart person, just the thought of doing the same physical routine, everyday, will drive them nuts. Even the thought of it can be depressing.
Probably, for a blue collar worker, the idea of sitting all day in front of the computer, and thinking these wierd problems, will drive them nuts too.
That is a good point, but not really what the article is about. I probably should have changed the title. It's not so much working hard as working hard on things without good reason.
It is good to work hard to provide for a family.
It is good to work hard to pursue a dream and further human progress.
It is not good to work hard just to gain unused material possessions, especially at the expense of my family.
I'm glad to see this perspective here. It's bizarre how much of a sense of entitlement we can get working at jobs whose high-level description is 'go build cool stuff', and where if you're any good and you don't like the one you're at, there are 10 more looking for you even in a down economy.
What's that got to do with hard work?
The fact is, fellow hackers, as much as we'd all hate to admit it, hardly anyone here knows squat about hard work.
Go ahead and haul those 300 barrels up to the loading dock. Or hot tar that roof when it's 100 degrees out. Or open the restaurant every morning at 6:00 am and feed 2,000 people every day (yes, 7 days per week). And never miss a day or you don't eat. How about painting every room in every school building all day every day until you die. With nothing to look forward to except that maybe, just maybe, someday your grandchildren might go to college.
Don't get me wrong: I'm grateful that I sit at a desk in a heated/air conditioned office making something out of nothing. This was possible at no other time in history.
But please don't confuse long hours with hard work. Too many others really worked hard so that we wouldn't have to.