The solution to nearly everything: Working less

[Mark Leavy]

I was in New Orleans one time and ordered an Old Fashioned at an Old Fashioned Establishment.

The gal behind the counter said she was a direct descendent of Charbonneau, an owner of Sacajawea and a founding importer of Boudin.

She took an ice-pick to a 3" slab of ice on the counter behind her and pulled out a rough cube.  She put the cube in a bar towel and used a cleaver to carve it into beautiful 2" sphere.  It was nearly perfect.

That went into my drink.

Since then I have put a bowl of water into the freezer as soon as I check into my AirBnB.  Whatever chef knife I have in the kitchen produces my evening ice-ball.

[dragoncar]

I put an old-fashioned ice tray in my freezer and now I have enough ice for the one every quarter or so I find myself wanting ice.

Old fashioned???!!!  I still use those.  The ice is square and not shaped like a stupid half moon and doesn't taste funky.  I doubt I would ever use an ice maker in a fridge bcause I know the filter would be a cheap piece of shit comapred to my RO unit.  The part I absolutely do hate is filling the trays and managing to get them all into the freezer without spilling the water everywhere.  I believe that was the original appeal of ice makers.

I've got an RO unit in "front" of the fridge (i.e., feeding the fridge water line).  I use a filter bypass in the fridge.  Note that this whole setup came with the house, it's not necessarily what I would choose if starting from scratch.

[MachineGhost]

[MachineGhost]

[dragoncar]

Yikes... Need a gdp per hour worked chart

[Greg]

Yikes... Need a gdp per hour worked chart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... our_worked

Top 10:



Rank   Country         GDP (PPP) per hour 2013
1         Norway           75.18
2         Luxembourg   73.22
3         United States 67.32
4         Belgium           60.98
5         Netherlands     60.06
6         France             59.24
7         Germany         57.36
8         Ireland             56.05
9         Australia           55.87
10       Denmark         55.75

[dragoncar]

Yikes... Need a gdp per hour worked chart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... our_worked

Top 10:



Rank   Country         GDP (PPP) per hour 2013
1         Norway           75.18
2         Luxembourg   73.22
3         United States 67.32
4         Belgium           60.98
5         Netherlands     60.06
6         France             59.24
7         Germany         57.36
8         Ireland             56.05
9         Australia           55.87
10       Denmark         55.75

Well that's much better than suggested by the above MG's graph.  Possibly due to the Y-axis starting at 500

[MachineGhost]

Well that's much better than suggested by the above MG's graph.  Possibly due to the Y-axis starting at 500

So what this means is the US works like a dog compared to Europe and doesn't get all that much more productivity out it, certainly not the most?  Basically, we work like a third world country and lazier countries are just as productive as we are.  What's wrong with this picture.  Are they all exploiting us in a trickle down fashion???

[WiseOne]

Also the logarithmic scale on the X axis in MG's graph.

It is interesting to see how many more hours the average U.S. worker puts in compared to EU countries.  The productivity/GDP output is not the only yardstick though.  Clearly that hasn't led to improvements in quality of life, or at least not that people are recognizing.

[dragoncar]

Also the logarithmic scale on the X axis in MG's graph.

It is interesting to see how many more hours the average U.S. worker puts in compared to EU countries.  The productivity/GDP output is not the only yardstick though.  Clearly that hasn't led to improvements in quality of life, or at least not that people are recognizing.

I dunno, working only 500 hours a year seems quality to me :-P

[curlew]

For the purposes of this thread maybe we should define what "working" means.

Is it being "at work" or actually working?

Don't tell my superiors but I can very easily spend a whole day, or even a whole week some times sitting at my desk and doing absolutely nothing. It's like the Mark Twain quote that says "once you establish a reputation as an early riser, you can sleep til noon". My own version would be once you establish a reputation for being willing to bust your balls and get things done you can sit in your cube and surf the net all day.

 

[WiseOne]

For the purposes of this thread maybe we should define what "working" means.

Is it being "at work" or actually working?

Probably "at work".  There's a good bit of face time and internet surfing time included in the number I am sure, because there's no way so many people can concentrate nonstop for that many hours a day.  Productive time is probably no more than an hour or two a day.  The rest is spent in meetings or dealing with dumb administrative tasks.

Still, the point is that for that many hours, you're not at home paying attention to your personal life, family or friends.

[MachineGhost]