One of my most reviled posts is called, Do People Really Only Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less And Complain Why They Can't Get Ahead? The post paints me as an unsympathetic person full of tough love. “Thank you sir! May I have another!”
I wrote the post back in 2011 when I was burning out from working in finance. Every week was a ~60-hour grind of doing the same thing I had been doing since 2009. Whenever I heard someone complain on the bus or online about their single-digit-hour workday, it irked me.
Oh, how I wished for a 9 AM to 5 PM workday. Instead, I was always expected to get in by 6:30 AM and stay connected until 9 PM because I needed to correspond with my colleagues in New York and Asia who were in different time zones.
Wanting to go straight to the corner office without putting in the work is human nature. As an old man now, I empathize with those of you who want six-pack abs while eating donuts every day. Sign me up! Nevertheless, I encourage you to act more rationally if you want to get ahead.
There are extremely smart people out there who are also working extremely hard at their goals. If you're of average intelligence, as I am, it's very difficult to be successful by working normal hours.
The Average Hours Worked Per Week In America
I've learned three things from this Census Bureau data chart below.
1) Working 40 hours a week is enough to get ahead if you are really working 40 hours a week.
2) It's easier than we think to get ahead because the average American worker only works about 34.2 hours a week!
3) More of us are exhausted since the pandemic began because the average hours worked per week has increased by one hour.
35.5 hours: The average hours worked per week in 1979
34.7 hours: The average hours worked a week in 1985
34.3 hours: The average hours worked a week in 1990
34 hours: The average hours worked a week in 2000
33 hours: The average hours worked a week in 2009 declined due to financial crisis
34.2 hours: The average hours worked a week in 2022
The long-term trend for work hours is clearly down.
The Joy Of Working Less For Similar Money
As technology and productivity have improved, the number of hours we've had to work a week has declined. Therefore, we should be thankful for getting to work less and making a similar amount of money, inflation-adjusted.
Meanwhile, there's also less of a need to work as much because of a bull market since 2009. The more our investment returns go up, the more inclined we are to take it easy. Some old-timers are making much more money from their investments than they are from their day jobs.
Once the pandemic finally subsides, I suspect the average hours of work per week will once again trend lower. By 2030, the average hours of work per week might only be around 32-33 hours in America.
Personally, I love working 20-25 hours a week. To feel productive, three to four hours a day of work is my sweet spot. It leaves enough time to exercise, socialize, and spend time with family.
After about four hours of work, work starts feeling like a burden. Work is much less fun when you have to do it for the money. Conversely, work gets more fun when you don't need to work. This is why I encourage all of you who have achieved financial independence to do some consulting in interesting fields. Or take a risk and do something entrepreneurial.
It's OK To Take It Easy If…..
Everything is rational in the end. If we want to increase our chances of getting paid and promoted, we'll work more. If we're happy with our career and the money we have, then we won't work as hard.
Just be careful who you listen to.
When I was still trying to reach my financial goals, I encouraged readers to stop their complaining and work harder. I cared more about all of us reaching the promised land! The message was also for me to suck it up and get on with things. I hated my internal complaining monologue.
Today, I'm in a different, but similar position.
Once again, I find myself burned out after two years of working online, writing a book, and being a stay-at-home dad. However, we've got enough passive income to pay for our regular lifestyle now. Therefore, feeling burned out through work is self-induced. I plan to lessen the pain this year.
If you want to work fewer hours a week, be my guest! Sleep in. Go to a ball game during work hours. Get that mouse-jiggler so you can work 2-hours a day like some work-from-home tech employees. If you do, just also be OK with the results.
11 years after my first burnout, I've got my financial safety net. As a result, my desire for debating what's good for you has also declined.
Do what you want!
Excited For Our Children's Future
As a parent, I often wondered about our children's future. I used to think about how it would be almost impossible for them to get into a top university unless they find a cure for cancer (or are a legacy from a wealthy family). I also used to worry about the brutal competition for meaningful work in a shrinking world.
But now I realize the average hours worked per week in America is so low, I'm hopeful everything will be all right! All our children have to do is work a little longer than the average, and over time, they will get far ahead.
Working 34.2 hours on average a week is not hard if you are able-bodied and are not doing heavy physical labor. We're talking 6.84 hours a day for five days, 5.7 hours a day for six days, or 4.9 hours a day for seven days.
If our children work just 36.2 hours a week on average, they might be able to build an empire! Working just two hours more than the average a week leads to 104 more hours of work a year. What can you do with an extra 104 hours a year?
If we can instill in our children a strong work ethic, chances are, they'll do fine in life. Add on good financial education and they'll likely do great.
A Good Strategy For Getting Ahead
Finally, instead of working longer hours to get ahead, another strategy might be to convince others to work less. This way, it's almost like a race to the bottom of the lethargy pit.
Playing up to people's entitlement will make you a very popular person. You deserve to be rich without having to take risks. You deserve more government benefits without having to pay more taxes. In other words, you expect the same rules that apply to others shouldn’t apply to you.
But the secret is to continue working hard while telling others to relax. This way, you widen the productivity gap even further. It's kind of like the people who try and convince you they are middle class while they're secretly rich and trying to get richer.
If you don't want to be average, the key is to not do average work. Thankfully, the hurdle has gotten so low I trust most of us will do great.
Who’s with me for slacking off? The YOLO economy is here to stay!
Related posts:
The Average Net Worth For The Above Average Person
The Average Amount Of Time Parents Spend With Their Kids Is So Low
Don't Make Over $400,000 A Year, Look How Miserable GS Analysts Are
Readers, are you surprised how low the average hours worked per week in America is? Has life actually gotten much easier, rather than much harder? Is the U.S. turning into France? We're working less, receiving more gov't and work benefits, and have more flexibility. Let's appreciate how good we've got it!
For more nuanced personal finance content, join 50,000+ others and sign up for my free weekly newsletter. I've been helping people achieve financial independence sooner since 2009.
Despite the uptick form the pandemic, people are working less. In some sense that is a good thing since productivity is improving.
Sometimes you can save costs by mowing the lawn yourself or doing chores instead of paying someone to do it. I really dislike going to work and having some boss bark at me for 60 hours a week so I can do the cooking and cleaning myself instead of hiring someone. Who works 9-5? I’ve always worked 8-5, 9-6, 9:30-6:30, 8:30-5:30 or 7-3 in fulltime day jobs.
In my 20s, I worked 50+ hrs/wk and made < $100K/yr as a Big 4 management consultant
In my 30s, I worked 40 hrs/wk and made $100K to $250K/year as a Corporate executive
In my 40s, I worked 20 hrs/wk as a real estate and stock investor. < $50K/yr income but I quadrupled my NW in 8 yrs.
I definitely needed to "invest" the blood and sweat early on to prepare for future success. At some point, though, working more hours produces diminishing returns. Trading hours for dollars is the very definition of the rat race.
“As technology and productivity have improved, the number of hours we’ve had to work a week has declined. ”
According to your data, it seems like there is no correlation between technology and hours worked.
No? The average hours worked per week is going down according to the data. What are you seeing? And are you working longer hours?
Interesting proposition but it’s not been my reality. Varies so much by industry.
I guess it depends on what’s classified as “work.” In my last few positions as a senior leader, I’ve found half of what’s work is not related to output. Key things that took up my time: 1) endless executive team meetings and presentations, HR-mandated initiatives to cascade/review team performance 2) lots of vendor/client dinners/lunches/drinks/launch parties where people expect face time with the lead in charge–some text you at all hours, esp if you have contacts across continents and time zones. 3) hours spent outside of office keeping up with industry trends, competitors, products info to maintain know-how and edge. The list goes on but basically they all add up to take time, attention, and work-life balance away from you.
I’ve always been envious of those who could “work smarter” with less hours, and be paid to think and merely set a vision or strategy. But my number one unmotivating thing about getting ahead is the hours spent managing up and politicking which seems to be pervasive across all industries. Master that skill and you’ll go far, even if you’re of average intelligence.
Yes, corporate politics, especially the higher you go is really something people need to master. I did my best until I didn’t want to do it anymore. Further, there was way too much turnover at the top in my company to keep up.
I’m actually not sure it would make any difference if I worked more than 40 hours a week at my job. In fact, I’m not sure what I’d even do in that extra time. In my experience, getting ahead at work, getting pay increases/bonuses/etc. has more to do with how the company overall is performing and some luck to be on the right projects/liked by your boss. You can easily make things worse by working longer hours, and i’ve actually never experienced getting a good pay increase, bonus or promotion because I “got a lot done”. (in fact, this can batockfire as it will piss off other people and possibly even your boss). Now, if you work in a job where you are directly getting paid per unit of work (attorneys billing by hour, mechanics, sales people etc) it’s a different story of course. But in the salaried, big company world its not been my experience.
have you considered moving to a smaller company?
Your results have more weight, you can impact the company more, and your actions will get more notice and recognition.
Sam,
I think front loading work is the way to go for longterm work/life balance. By grinding away in your 20s, if you have a good paying job, you can create a lifestyle that can support 3-4 hours of work a day for the remainder of your career by pursuing financial independence. However, for the average American, this may mean working into your 30s or 40s and at a slower pace to prevent burnout. Regardless, there is no reason why anyone should have to work 40/hours a week (or 34) for their entire career. The work centric culture of the US leaves much to be desired, as life is too short to waste away not pursuing your own personal desires just so you can get by.
This is just one limited perspective because I can only speak to what I’ve observed in my siblings and their spouses since I have a close relationship with them. They are all professionals and working at least 40 hours a week. Here are their professions: medical researcher, ER doctor, software engineer, director of training, nurse anesthetist, and IT consultant. I’m an auditor and my husband is a handyman.
Five out of the eight of us have side hustles that could be considered as another career: insurance agents, claims adjuster, and cardiologist. For myself, I’ve had various side hustles as a florist, wedding cake baker, model, Uber driver, Etsy seller, renovator (specializing in tile work and electrical but pretty much take on anything that needs to get done) and recently became a licensed claims adjuster to allow me to work with my husband when he travels for catastrophic events.
My and husband’s latest gig was to help distribute tablets that provided free internet service to eligible folks as part of the federal COVID stimulus program. By working an extra 30 hours a week I was able to make $800/week. The way I see it, if a normal 40 hours/ week gets someone financially ready to retire in about 40 years then putting in the extra hours will surely reduce the number of years until I can reach financial independence/retire.
Good on you guys for working extra to make extra income!
I wonder if the average work hours a week situation is like the average 401(k) balance situation. Because people change jobs, they often roll over their 401(k) to an Ira or they open up another 401(k). As a result, the true balance is under reported.
Obviously it is not just working a few hours more than your co-workers to get ahead. Work ethic is very important, but I would add a couple more:
1) Intelligence and common sense. I have a business that deals with the general public and I am just shocked at the average intelligence. It really makes it easier when the competition is low.
2) Timing.
3) Luck
There are also certain personality traits that are common in wealthy people. A few studies have been done on this subject.
I totally believe in the luck factor. Any outsized wealth we have is mostly due to luck. Hence, why we need to stay humble, give back, and feel grateful every day. Let’s not take our luck for granted!
I am not surprised by these numbers I own my veterinary practice and the amount of hours I work is around 65-70 a week. The pandemic has pushed the veterinary field to the brink and it is difficult to staff hospitals and adequately care for the volume of pets that are sick or need care. Hopefully, as the pandemic eases the amount of work goes down but the sheer shortage of veterinary professionals is scary and I see no end in sight. Please be kind to your veterinary hospital because we are trying our best to help.
Thanks for helping Keith!
On the flip side, can you raise prices to help throttle volume and live a more balanced life?
Ahhh….now I know why you kept telling people to relax and live it up in past posts, lol.
I say think hard in order to figure out how to work smart and therefore less.
Indeed. Growing a website to 1+ million pageviews a month is so easy, anybody can do it! Just type a couple sentences together and watch folks flock over to what you have to say.
Taking it a step further, making millions online is even easier. Let’s go folks!
Certainly some industries require more physical working hours than others. I find it funny though when people talk about working 80-90-100hrs a week. All I think is how inefficient they must be. When people are spending countless hours reformatting a spreadsheet or a document, they likely have lost sight of the end goal. I had a VP once tell me that you can always enhance an excel sheet, but if at the end of the effort the calculation has an error you wasted your time. No one cares how it looks if the result is wrong.
I too likely fell victim to working longer hours when I was earlier in my career. Surely it helped at the time. I promoted quickly, I learned skills others didn’t take the time to learn, and I became more valuable. When looking back on it all now, I realize while that is all true, I could have done it more efficiently. The key now, is to help others learn what to spend time on, and what to delegate or eliminate from the process.
I have a unofficial policy, that if I see someone on 40 hour salary working 60 hours or more, I start to think they need to be moved to a PIP. 60hrs should be the limit, I’m not impressed with inefficiency. My typical working hours are in the office by 6:15 out of the office and with family by 4:30pm. Will I take a call or meeting outside of those hours, sure if necessary. However if I can move the effort to the next business day I will. If the effort doesn’t move the needle instantly, then it’s likely not worth the extra burden on those involved.
As I’m in construction I look at other metrics, but I’m willing to bet some of this translates…
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers performed a overtime modification study on labor efforts. The chart tracks efficiency versus weeks worked at a given rate. The highest efficiency rating of overtime is tracked as 5 days a week 9 hour shifts. followed by 6 days a week 8 hour shifts, then 5 days a week 10 hour shifts. That effort can be sustained over a month and still all of those are above the 95% efficiency rating. Once you extend outside of this window, the curve drops dramatically. As an example, someone working 5 days a week for 12 hours a day after 4 weeks, is only 78% efficient compared to 95% efficient after 1 week. Now given this chart is looking at a 4 week period with a stark decline overtime, you can easily see why someone would burn out working greater than 60+ hours overtime. They are self defeating, and less efficient and likely causing more errors which causes more work, and the cycle repeats.
I’ve come to realize that working more to provide more for the kids, while simultaneously losing time with the kids is suboptimal. I’d rather spend more time with them while available then to work extra hours without them. Life always requires a rebalancing of priorities.
I’m hoping that my kids can see that balance can be achieved. I’m an executive in a company, and my wife is a senior manager in hers. We both work hard in the day time, are efficient in our efforts, and put our family needs first. My biggest accomplishment thus far is that despite all of the company responsibilities my wife and I carry, we eat dinner as a family five nights a week.
“All I think is how inefficient they must be” – Makes sense!
“I’ve come to realize that working more to provide more for the kids, while simultaneously losing time with the kids is suboptimal. I’d rather spend more time with them while available then to work extra hours without them. Life always requires a rebalancing of priorities.” – absolutely. I’m writing a post that touches upon this topic tomorrow.
Curious, as two well-paid professionals, when do you think you’ll ever walk away from work, if ever?
I sat down to write that response earlier, but took pause. I really have a struggle with nailing that down. My wife would stop working tomorrow if we had a bit more money coming in. We wouldn’t need her salary to cover expenses or anything, but we have come accustom to giving our kids, and family nicer things. However, she struggles at times with retiring, because she spent all this time becoming high value she doesn’t want to step out of focus. She actually already did that once to an extent. She was on the fast track to become a senior ELT member but decided for family balance to take a side step with the thought she could take the next rung later. Now, I think she just likes knowing she can move up whenever and is choosing not to (which is still the case. Her CEO wants her to take the next step, they have offered several times). If given the choice she would probably retire in the next 1-3 years, and replace her efforts with Philanthropy. Given she is 100% remote these days, I’m hoping I can get her to go another 5-7.
For me, I’m thinking maybe 12 more years. I’ve looked at the numbers and using “FS thinking” (25X expenses) It could be far less, however I think I still enjoy the challenges and accomplishments. I’m more motivated to spend “my time” when it’s limited such as weekends or holidays versus when I have vacation weeks. Something about the finite “freedom” makes it more special in a sense.
I know a guy who is 82 and still is grinding at work, while sitting on $40M+ at home. I surely won’t be him…
While reading this post, I was watching an interesting conversation on CNBC Squawk Box about how Wall Street is only going to give bonuses to employees who come back to the office. The point was that relationships get deals done (i.e., sitting in a conference room for hours on end, hammering out details and agreements), and if you’re not in the office working with your boss to get a deal done, you’re not as relevant nor likely to get a bonus. Obviously this conversation applies more to the banking industry than the tech industry, but FS, what do you think about this conversation as far as how it will impact the “work remote” crowd for the long term?
Interesting question. In any relationship business, making real-life connections goes a long way. It’s why I think big cities like NYC and SF will still thrive. People want to be with people who are making the decisions. They want to be where the clients are. People want to build relationships for a better career and life.
Personally, I would only relocate somewhere and not come into the office for lifestyle/cost of living reasons until AFTER I’ve built my network. So, after 35-40.
I feel like my wife is working a lot more these days. She’s on assignment with an east coast team so she’s often up at 5 am to dial in. Then she says she’s more productive at night and works until 11 pm. Seems pretty crazy, but she takes breaks in between. Still seems like a crazy work day to me. I’m surprised the number of hours worked is that low.
Wow… your wife is a hard worker! That is impressive doing 5 am and 11 pm work. You’ve got yourself a keeper, financially and security-wise!
Oh wow, I’m surprised the numbers aren’t significantly higher. I would have thought the average would easily be over 40, especially with all the coastal markets.
Important to note that a lot of white collar work is…different (I started in the early 2010s and I notice it’s different). Constant emails. Filing emails. Responding to emails. Letting people know I received their emails and will respond to their emails later.
Also, technology has made the job so much simpler. I’m a firm believer that the job that was 40 hours 20 years ago takes 10-15 hours today. What do we do with the extra time? A mix of (i) analysis paralysis because we have the time and (ii) surfing the web and texting / being on our phones.
I think that’s why work from home has been so weird. People were able to do their jobs in 4 hours when they’re normally in the office for 9, and then have all this time
Ugh, e-mails. I don’t enjoy the volume and I had a massive OOO for two years in a row. But, it is what it is in this world! I let me e-mails pile up and go unread. I’m bad w/ emails.
Dear Financial Samurai,
I often work over 40 hours/week, although not crazy hours (very unusual to put in more than 50 h/w). I am 34 and content with that level of stress. I am doing well in my career (at least to my standards), and in my specific case I don’t feel like additional effort would lead to me receiving a significant promotion/pay rise. I have a director position at a company in the renewables sector and I pocket 6 figures (which gets amplified because I live in an emerging market and it is dirt cheap here, plus a lot of fun because of the good weather, etc.). However, I struggle to be fully satisfied with my financial situation.
My NW is approx. $0.8m, and even if by many standards I could say that I’m getting ahead, I do constantly wish I had more money. Not because I want to fund a better lifestyle, but because I deeply value financial security for me and my family. I think this might resonate with you.
I own stocks and 2 properties – the last one bought in the US at the end of 2020 (thanks partly to your articles), and even though it has been one of the best moments to buy property in the last decades, instead of appreciating the gains… I feel miserable that real estate is appreciating so much and I don’t have MORE properties to benefit from! I find disturbing that it bothers me that even when I’m getting ahead I feel that other people are getting ‘more ahead’ – this is hard to accept. Naturally, the more you have, the more you benefit from bull markets, so it feels like the ‘rich’ will always be farther away from me. My annual salary doesn’t make up for a 20% annual appreciation on a 1mUSD home.
I now have approx. 130kUSD in cash and I am considering what to do with that money. I am heavy on RE already (68% of assets), but given your predictions (stock market looking bubbly)… I don’t know what to do with that cash. I want to buy another property in the US because I agree with you that US property is very cheap compared to the prices overseas. However, the recent price gains in places like Austin… mmm, make me a bit cautious. Also, I find impractical to invest in very small cities like Hunstville or Fayetteville even if there are great opportunities there. Medium-big cities with attractive RE opportunities? Not many that I know. Stocks don’t look attractive and holding cash has a huge opportunity cost given the current inflation. My salary won’t go up significantly either – I also considered pursuing an EMBA at a top-tier school as a better use for the cash that I am holding now.
Any comments you might have are very much appreciated. Please help me slice through money’s mysteries. Your posts have helped me get to the place where I am now.
Regards,
Max (is greed a human condition?)
Hi Max,
Yes, greed and fear is a human condition! That’s what naturally forces us to work harder, take more risks, and work smarter to grow our wealth. It’s a great safety mechanism to ensure the survival of a species.
“ I deeply value financial security for me and my family. I think this might resonate with you.”
For sure. It’s hard to always feel rich. There’s a saying that goes, take what you have and multiplied by three. That’s when you’ll finally feel rich. But once you get there, you may want to multiply the figure by three again.
I’m not worried about you because you have this desire and fear. Therefore, you will inevitably make more money.
But spending more time developing alternative income streams is what I would do if I were you since you seldom work more than 40 hours a week.
That’s a good life!
Check out the two linked posts above for more details.
Sam
Hi Sam,
I think the average work by week data is probably only the official data.
When we are on an annual contract with fixed hour per week, it’s just this data that is calculated. Like you, I was working probably 45-50hrs with peaks at 70 or 80.. But my “official” hours worked was only 35hrs per week. All the rest was “free time” for the benefit of my employer.
The data is even lower because many employees are paid hourly when they show up (restaurants, retail for example). This probably drive the average down.
Employers have an incentive to make people work more when they are not paid for it. And they have an incentive to cut hours to the minimum when overtime is paid.
So, I’m not sure we can conclude anything from such high level data. Maybe if it was sector-by-sector it would be better. But my feeling is that small businesses are having a difficult time and that they are cutting paid hours as much as they can, even if the employees are still on the job.
Love reading your blog ! I hope you continue even you have already all the investments and passive income that you need.
If anything, I think the data is overstated – People really work less than they admit.
We all know nobody works a full 8 hours + lunch break if that is what’s required.
Life gonna be all right for our children!
There are a lot of nurses that would disagree about nobody works 8 hours anymore. My wife is a nurse and she works her tail off.
I am a pharmacist by trade and I worked 40+ hours per week. Most of my career I worked 80+ hours in ONE week and off the next week. The tradeoff was okay(26 weeks off per year). Healthcare money got tight and management decided it would be better to run off the older workers because we made too much money, and the bullying started. They wanted more hours from us on our off week because ,” we only worked 26 weeks a year”. Out time off was cut. Then COVID hit. At age 65 I was forced to work overnight and was not paid the overnight shift differential of the person I worked with. I met a guy (MD)and got married and retired. Should have done it sooner no matter the financial consequences. At this point I would advise NO ONE to go into Healthcare. Too little money, too many patients and incompetent management and administration. #happilyretired
Glad you escaped and found love! Better late than never! And if you can find a wealthy partner who is awesome, even better!
Yes, Sam, life is pretty great right now! My only income is $3100 per month from SS and that is fine. I run the house and take care of all the details. We have money put away and are still saving but are not drawing on it until he retires. I have followed your emails for years and love your insight. Keep it coming…there is always something to learn!
And stupid patients who are jeopardizing the lives of health care workers by not getting vaccinations.
You do realize that those who are vaccinated can still spread covid right?
…and now California is fixing to go “single-payer”. So even less incentive to go into healthcare here. This will not end well. Sadly/angrily, I fear I will be retiring elsewhere.
Great article Sam. Understanding how you hit burnout, do you think you will encourage your kids down the same path? Once they are out of college do you anticipate helping them out financially? Id love to see a “life after college” post on how you plan (or not) to contribute to their financial success.
Unsure. It depends on how they are when the time comes. How are you thinking about this situation?
Related: How to get your parents to pay for everything as an adult child
I’ve got a teen child and this has been on my mind. I’ve been trying to instill a belief that saving is his superpower. The more he saves earlier the more leverage you have in your work decisions. It’s a sliding scale. Not an early retirement, on/off decision. I wish someone told me that back in the day. Even now, I know I’ll never “retire”. But I’m hell bent on getting to an adjustable “turn the dial” approach to working. By instilling a saving mindset, he can build that right out of the gate.
Most places you have to work 30-35 hours per week for benefits. If we had National healthcare, we might become France.
And the French are pretty happy! Our children will have an easier life. Trillions in inheritance and lots of government subsidies.
We can leave the upcoming countries to innovate and invent for us. Then we can adopt their innovations to improve our lives. Not bad!
Related: I’ve Seen The Future And It Looks So Bright
Another possibility with this mindset is our children or grandchildren are speaking Mandarin and living under some sort of weird sino authoritarian gulag system
Don’t understand. Please elaborate.
I THINK he’s implying that if we go that route, eventually China will run the world
Coming from someone who lives in France now, it sure doesn’t seem like people are any happier here. And quick internet searches seem to back up the notion that happiness here is not much different than the US: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world
Side note, as a fellow W&M alum, I take issue with your characterization of being of average intelligence. Surely you’re selling yourself short! Maybe you feel that way, or maybe you were of average intelligence compared to your peers at W&M or at work, but that would still put you well ahead of “average intelligence” overall. Just some food for thought ;)
Go Tribe! I will always be average. It’s the best! Being too smart can be debilitating. You may overanalyze and never start a thing!
You sure people are not happier in France? I really enjoyed our time staying at La Reserve Hotel, eating all the pastries, and drinking coffee outside while people watching. A good life!
Interesting take on intelligence–sounds like it’s more a mindset than an accurate reflection of reality but I like it!
Your time in France does sound like the good life. And the French definitely do that… sometimes. But there’s also a lot of griping here (strikes and protests are like a national pastime), unemployment is higher than the U.S., taxes are higher (although this is not without its benefits), and wages are lower. And it sounds like your room at La Reserve was much larger than the average apartment in Paris. It does look like a great hotel though!
Hah, yeah, I hear the French gripe a lot too. But you guys have Roland Garros, so there should be nothing to complain about. I really enjoyed watching tennis there. Points so good.