Thank you very much for the interesting link to Bertrand Russel's take on this issue. Some time ago, another very interesting piece of Betrand Russel was linked by another HN user, and I have to say that reading Mr. Russel's essays should be required reading for some classes; probably in addition to reading some of his mathematical work, which is highly recommended, too.
That aside, I think that the article does not address another important (probably too recent) reason/ambition for increased work load: improving ones social status. As already indicated this probably was a non-issue when the article was authored, but then again my comment would fall into the just-for-the-record category...
Increasing your status at work is seductive and easy, but temporary. Increasing your status in society at large requires investment of time and/or money in your local community, open source or building a community on-line.
Spending less time at work makes it possible to do all these things and it is something that I would very much like to do.
Of course, since I am working 60-70 hour work weeks, perhaps doing other stuff is just seductive to me right now.
That aside, I think that the article does not address another important (probably too recent) reason/ambition for increased work load: improving ones social status. As already indicated this probably was a non-issue when the article was authored, but then again my comment would fall into the just-for-the-record category...