Most people — even those who love their jobs — probably wouldn’t mind shaving a few days off the workweek. Turns out, neither would Bill Gates. Yes, that Bill Gates. The man who famously worked 16-hour days in his 20s, refused vacations, and practically lived at Microsoft.
Now? He’s saying less work might actually be better.
“It’s probably OK,” Gates said in November 2023 on Trevor Noah’s “What Now?” podcast. “If you eventually get a society where you only have to work three days a week or something, that’s probably OK if the machines can make all the food and the stuff and we don’t have to work as hard.”
The billionaire, who built his career on relentless work ethic and obsession with productivity, now envisions a future where artificial intelligence and automation take over essential tasks — leaving humans with more free time.
“If you zoom out, the purpose of life is not just to do jobs,” Gates told Noah.
Of course, he’s not calling for a mass resignation just yet. Gates pointed out that even with a shorter workweek, there will still be plenty of meaningful work to go around. “The demand for labor to do good things is still there if you match the skills to it,” he said. “And then if you ever get beyond that, then, OK, you have a lot of leisure time and will have to figure out what to do with it.”
He also acknowledged that the shift won’t happen overnight — or pain-free. Technological change can mean job loss. But, Gates noted, “If they come slow enough, they’re generational.” Historically, societies have adapted. For example, farming jobs declined gradually over many decades.
“It’s all good,” Gates added. “It’s the aging society, it’s OK because the software makes things more productive.”
