Can we have the day off?
mike's websitewriting, mostly about technology<<<May '26Can we have the day off?So, apparently we are at the cusp of the entire world’s white collar workforce
(and, by extension, much of the US workforce) undergoing a revolution in
productivity. AI is the technology that is going to revolutionize the way we
work, the way we interact with the world, the way we learn, the way we
socialize, and all of this. This sounds great. Really, it does. Everything
getting faster and easier would be an extraordinary boon to all of our lives.Can we have a day off then?If AI is going to 10x our productivity across the board, that means that I
should be able to produce the same amount of output by midday on Monday that, in
the before times, would have taken all week.So can I just take Friday off? From here on out, I’ll work Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, and then take Friday off. We can even declare Friday to be
something like an “AI workers’ day;” on Thursday I promise I’ll work my ass off
writing great prompts and then the agents can churn on them all day on Friday.
In that case, you’d hardly even lose Friday, right?And like, this would apply across the board, of course. So you, the board of
directors, and the C-suite, you guys could take Friday off to go to play an
entire 18 holes at the golf course. It’ll be beautiful, can you imagine? You
don’t have to be in the office, because I’m not going to be in the office. You
don’t have to be at the office, because the AI agents are there. And neither do
I!Just one extra day. Seems reasonable and quite a small change really, in light
of the total world revolution across every swathe of human productivity.(Yo, Elon: I’m trying to increase the fertility rate. Childcare for 3 small children is six thousand dollars a month here in California. Do I have to go into the office all five days this week? Why not four?)

The discussion centers on the implications of the impending revolution in productivity driven by Artificial Intelligence, which is anticipated to transform how work is done, how the world interacts, how learning occurs, and how society socializes. The speaker posits that if AI is capable of increasing overall productivity tenfold, it logically follows that individuals should be afforded more time off. The speaker proposes a new work schedule where they would work Monday through Thursday and take Friday off, suggesting that Friday could be designated as an “AI workers’ day,” where agents handle tasks based on carefully constructed prompts. This arrangement implies that the necessity of working all five days is eliminated because the AI agents can manage the output, thereby achieving the same results in less time. Furthermore, the speaker extends this idea to leadership, suggesting that the board of directors and the C-suite could also take Friday off, citing the appeal of an extended leisure period, such as an 18-hole golf course, as a reward for this increased efficiency. The argument suggests that this change is reasonable given the global revolution in human productivity, implying that the physical presence in the office is unnecessary because the work will be managed by AI agents. This idea is further contextualized by an unrelated consideration regarding the high costs associated with necessities, such as childcare in California, which serves as an additional motivation for reducing working hours.