this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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Imagine all your basic needs are covered: housing, food, healthcare, and so on. You don't need to work for a living anymore. What would you do with your time?

I know this might sound like a bit of a dreamy question, but it's been on my mind lately, especially as I see so many people working tirelessly day and night. Perhaps it's time for us to slow down and reflect on what truly matters. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Spending time with my wife

Working on open source projects

Learning new skills, musical instruments

Practicing karate

Spending time with my wife

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Probably just developing free & open source software. Doing other things that I enjoy: music production, traveling, idk. I'd definitely make sure to have some goal, something that I can learn or work on. Something that I can achieve, and look back at.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I’d keep working for a few years and use every single penny to generate additional passive income. Once I was not just comfortable, but nicely appointed, I’d split my time between working part time, doing stuff to help other people, and being a gigantic slut.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I would spend more time doing charity work and contributing to open source.

I already volunteer for a reproductive justice charity, and I would LOVE to devote more time to making the Linux desktop more accessible for visually impaired folks like me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Having your basic needs covered is cool, but I'd like some money on top of that, too. So work it is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I would stay in my room. That's why I do anyways after work (when I had a job).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Hmmm I am kinda in this situation now and I have to say I still want to work just not for other people (unless I know them well). I actually am trying to be more active and working on my own stuff makes me feel good and gets me off my ass.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

If I didn't get go work I would be bored for a while until I get used to it. I don't have much content in my life and work is a key aspect in keeping routines and all that jazz.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I'd probably spend my time learning IT, computer hardware specs and maybe networking.

Maybe build a private file sharing | streaming service for my apartment, and start a website blog.

Perhaps also persue digital art and finally learn how to use vectors.

Maybe also make a YouTube channel and spend my time educating others.

But alas, im bound by my need for an income and will spend the next few years trying to persists as a (almost) new mechanical engineer bachelor.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I would work full time on contributing code and development efforts to [email protected] , which is a software used by scientists to distribute massive computational workloads to the computers of volunteers for processing. All sorts of medical, physics, and math research gets done through it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Read, write, gym, combat sports, paint, study, research, try to contribute to science, astronomy, camping, gardening, fishing, and a lot more.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Probably other kinds of work.

Like I would love to staff a local convenience store. Maybe some farming for part of the year. Oh and fixing people's appliances would be so cool

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Fishing and sailing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I like to think I'd tend to my garden, fix bicycles for the neighborhood, volunteer at a youth center and become politically active. But there were times when I had no job and no lack of money, and I just doomscrolled 16 hours a day.
Now I have a job that doesn't stress me out, has purpose, pays the bills and then some, and is done at 3pm. And I actually do all these other things in my free time.
But I do need strong external motivation to start the day and get outside.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

What I do when I have spare time: write. I just don't seem to have had any spare time recently.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Like almost everyone else on this thread has said, I would still work; just for fulfilment rather than to survive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

under capitalism or an alternative?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Read. Study topics I don’t know about. Learn new skills and try out new experiences. Travel to different places I haven't visited before.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

A lot of birdwatching, maybe some music-making, and learning to cook very well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Aside from being lazy and playing video games all day, I would like to learn new skills. I always said I wanted to try woodworking. A lot of my current skills involve being on a computer so I would like at least one that involves tools and using my hands.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Probably take a break for a month or two then look for some oss project or activism to participate in, play more music and video games, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Working on something I want.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

In no particular order:

  • Finally do those after-class reading + tutoring sessions for kids in my daughter's school.
  • Sign up for shifts on the "Good-Night-Bus" in my local town that looks after homeless people during night-time.
  • Play hand-pan, guitar & other random instruments at local relaxation spots to add to the overall atmosphere of "the good life"
  • regularly offer my handymen skills to my neighborhood via local web-platform and also contribute to "Repair-CafΓ©s" as a helping hand
  • Find a local community-garden project to help out at so that the city stays 0.1% greener than without me
  • Offer my yet-currently-relevant professional skills (Frontend / WebPerf / CDNs / DevOps) to a NGO that couldn't usually afford my wages (again: preferably something relevant to my region to feel a sense of impact)
  • Keep maintaining my OpenSource repositories and publish new ideas ASAP to prevent Software Patents
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Garden, fuck, go to the beach, read, dance, cook and ferment, hang out with people. Probably still work some for money if I needed it to buy stuff like drinks or an e-bike, or to travel, I'm sure we'd still have a money economy of some sort. Same stuff I'd do if I could afford to retire. If I was a few years younger, would foster a kid or two.

Oh, and I'm sure I could live a full and healthy life without paid employment, myself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Gardening and pickling/preserving foods to start. Writing a novel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I haven’t worked for almost a year. Mostly, I wake up, play video games, eat, and do some work around the house. There are pretty bad days where I feel worthless and tell myself pretty negative stories, but I’ve gotten much better at ignoring them. Now, I’ll be going back to work soon, and I’m terrified of losing my total free time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I'd go to school and take every course I possibly could for the rest of my life or until I couldn't.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hike the entirety of the AT and the PCT.

Go bikepacking more frequently. Or go on a months long trip.

Make art - photography, digital art, linocut.

Help friends and family with projects.

That's the short version. There are so many possibilities once you remove the need to be tied to a job/computer for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I would love to have the freedom to simply not work. I don't want to be rich, I just want to be able to exist without having to work.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Reading, crafting, learning a language.

[–] ristoril_zip 2 points 5 months ago

If this is a transition from how I live now to never needing to work again, I'm guessing the first 6 months to a year would just be disbelief and slacking. Video games, TV/YouTube, etc.

I'd probably do more of the things I do with my limited off time: gardening, taking care of family & pets, taekwondo.

Honestly have no idea what I'd do once I became accustomed to it. Maybe travel? Participate in local politics more? Volunteer? I would definitely have a sense that I needed to do something to make my life "worth it" that I currently get from working to provide for my family.

It's definitely a result of conditioning, not some fundamental truth of the universe. But nearly 50 years of that conditioning is hard to break overnight.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Mostly more of what I do in my free time now. Mess around trying to make music, watch TV and movies, play video games, read, watch live music, go on hikes and spend time with my family.

I don't understand the people who say they'd be bored if they didn't work. I have more than enough media alone to keep me busy, never mind the amount of things I could pick up or at least try in the extra time. Maybe I'd learn to code and contribute to some open source projects.

The difference would be it would all be on my own terms and truly at my own leisure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand the people who say they'd be bored if they didn't work.

I think it's that they would miss the sense of achievement that comes from a group collaboration on a shared goal. Doesn't mean it needs to be what they do today, but I suspect you'd find these people in community projects if you didn't have to earn.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yea exactly. This is more evidence that we don't need the threat of starvation and homelessness in order to be productive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

They're would be a lot of time involved in bettering my community. Also a lot of trips and hobbies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Depends on why/how my needs are being met I suppose. If this is a post-scarcity situation where everyone's needs are met and no one has to work, I'd probably keep at my current job. I install and repair nurse call systems (the buttons you push in a hospital to tell the staff you need help) I mostly enjoy the work and someone is going to have to keep doing it. I live in a town with a huge hospital and could easily keep busy without leaving town.

If this situation where only my own basic needs are met and not everyone else's, I wouldn't keep going to that job. Management is kind of a pain and they can certainly afford to train someone who needs the work. I'd still fix whatever kind of shit I knew how to because honestly, I love working with a wrench but, I'd be doing it freelance at that point. I'd probably start by knocking on the doors of local machine shops, fixing machine tools and lasers was more fun than nurse call and if I wasn't tied to one specific brand, I could probably keep busy without driving 4 hours a day (I quit that job because I was tired of travel). If that took off, I'd try to turn it into a business and train someone to pick up the slack so I could still take the occasional vacation without leaving regular customers hanging. If that wasn't enough to keep even just me busy, I'd probably start asking around about other random shit that needed to be fixed. Lots of people deal with broken shit because they can't afford to fix it and if I was only looking to stave off boredom, not having to make a profit, I could probably get it done affordably.

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