The High Cost Of Working 40 Hours A Week

I recently took on a month-long project that served as a corporate job simulator, a full decade after quitting my microbiologist career. This short project was a powerful reminder how modern work is incompatible with human contentment.

During my project, I woke up every day at the relatively reasonable time of 8:30 a.m. to be at “work” at 9:00 a.m. I then had to pay attention, focus, cooperate with others, and do mentally intensive tasks. This project required five hours of solid work a day,...