Who Invented the 9-to-5? (It Wasn't Made for You)

You'll spend around 90,000 hours at work. But the 9-to-5 isn't a law of nature — it was invented. From hunter-gatherers to factories, Robert Owen's 8-8-8, Henry Ford's weekend, and Keynes's 15-hour-week prediction. 📘 FREE Caveman Brain Field Guide (10 ancient brain programs + how to hack them): https://cavemanbrain.gumroad.com/l/ca... CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:46 Before jobs 2:22 The farming trap 3:31 Enter the factory 4:15 The fight for eight hours 5:53 The prediction that failed 6:48 Your caveman brain at the office 7:25 The future of work 7:59 Outro SOURCES & FURTHER READING • Richard B. Lee, fieldwork with the Ju/'hoansi (!Kung San) of the Kalahari; R. B. Lee & I. DeVore (eds.), "Man the Hunter" (1968) • Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society" (1966; in "Stone Age Economics", 1972) • M. Dyble et al., "Engagement in agricultural work is associated with reduced leisure time among Agta hunter-gatherers", Nature Human Behaviour (2019) • Yuval Noah Harari, "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" (2014) • Juliet B. Schor, "The Overworked American" (1991) • E. P. Thompson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism", Past & Present (1967) • Robert Owen's "eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest" (1817) • Ford Motor Company: the $5 day (1914) and the five-day, 40-hour week (1926) • U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) • J. M. Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" (1930) • 4 Day Week Global / Autonomy, "The results are in: the UK's four-day week pilot" (2023) Caveman Brain explains why modern humans live the way we do — through the 200,000-year-old brain we're all still running. Every video is written, fact-checked and custom-animated in code. This video is for education and entertainment, not medical advice. #whoinventedthe9to5 #40hourworkweek #historyofwork