“Here is an excellent video on the history of work.”
Excellent history of work and how it came to be.
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Here is an excellent video on the history of work. In short, the Dutch screwed it up for all of us. [0] [0]: this video
Work.
1.7M views · Sep 29, 2023 · 33:16 · 3 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2023–2025
Historia Civilis traces the history of work and time discipline, comparing modern working hours with those of medieval peasants and the changes brought by clocks and industrialization. It draws on works such as Schor's The Overworked American.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN uses it in work-hours and four-day-week threads as the source for the claim that people worked fewer hours before the industrial era.
“Here is an excellent video on the history of work.”HN comment, 2025
What Hacker News said 7
“Just watched this interesting video comparing how much we work today to medieval times.”
Compares modern work hours to medieval peasants, who worked far fewer hours.
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Just watched this interesting video comparing how much we work today to medieval times. this video TL;DR we work a LOT more hours now than substance farmers did. They worked 4-6 hours a day and only worked about half of the days out of the year.
“This video [2] from Historia Civilis is very relevant.”
Shows we work more hours than medieval peasants did.
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Hell, when the industorial revolution happened, working hours increased , not decrease. And especially with electricity, Factory owners forced workers to work deep into the night. A constant 16-hour shift was the norm, so much that it requires legal intervention [1] > In 1833, the Factory Act banned children under 9 from working in the textile industry, and the working hours of 10-13 year olds was limited to 48 hours a week, while 14-18 year olds were limited to 69 hours a week, and 12 hours a day. Government factory inspectors were appointed to enforce the law. Constant work day in and out, morning and night. At least before the industrial revolution farmers only had to work as long as there was daylight, and winters meant shorter work times. This video [2] from Historia Civilis is very relevant. The gist of ot is that to this day, we work more hours than medieval peasants did. [1] link [2] this video
Linked without explanation in a discussion of the Pomodoro technique.
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this video But apart from that, I personally need often 1 hour minimum to dive deeply into a problem and spend a considerable amount of time to begin or continue to solve it. I do not think that the pomodoro technique is apropriate for me.
“My source is this video”
Source for historical work patterns before the industrial era.
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The idea that you will be steadily productive 9-5, 5 days a week, for most months of the year, is a post-Industrial expectation. Our ancestors knew mostly "long" days that ended at 5, followed by "slow" days that ended at 12. And the workdays shrunk in later months because there was less daylight. I do wonder if that's part of it - some of us aren't built for conventional work cycles, but most people are and it it is something we can't expect to reshape easily. My source is this video: this video
“We work unusually hard compared to our ancestors”
Cited as showing we work unusually hard compared to ancestors.
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> how long ago was the 5 day work week established as the standard? We work unusually hard compared to our ancestors [1]. [1] this video
“people worked less hours before the Industrial revolution”
Cited for data that work hours rose after the industrial revolution.
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> Average hours worked is more or less monotonically decreasing since the start of the industrial revolution Although that is true when comparing the start of the Industrial revolution and now, people worked less hours before the Industrial revolution [1]. Comparing the hours of work per year in England between the 17th century and the 19th century, there has been an increase of 80%. Most interestingly, the real average weekly wages over the same time period have slightly decreased, while the GDP has increased by 50%. 1. this video