June Kim posted a message on the extremeprogramming list which included a graph about work hours and productivity. She created the graph from data she found in two wikipedia articles about work.
In the article Working Time , my favorite data about work was:
The Kapauku of Papua think it is bad luck to work two consecutive days.
The !Kung Bushmen work just two-and-a-half days per week, rarely more than six hours per day.
Maybe it’s all in how we define “work”. In my life, there’s work that feels like w-o-r-k and work that feels like what I’d choose to do given all the choices of activities available. I’m looking for more of the second kind of work, and less of the first.