especially when there is not that much to actually do in all that free time.
This is just bad history. Medieval peasants occupied themselves with hobbies just like we do. Just because they didn't have video games doesn't mean they had nothing to do.
I didn't mean to imply that and frankly regret writing that first paragraph because it just takes away from the more meaningful second paragraph. Obviously they still did things and had hobbies there's bundles of archeological evidence for that, but the breadth of possible things to do was much narrower.
Perhaps it's just a matter of personal preference but if forced to choose I will always prefer a wide variety of options with less time to do them in than a narrower variety of options with more time to do them in. Although obviously more time and more options is always better, and sufficient automation might get us there at some point.
This is just bad history. Medieval peasants occupied themselves with hobbies just like we do. Just because they didn't have video games doesn't mean they had nothing to do.
I didn't mean to imply that and frankly regret writing that first paragraph because it just takes away from the more meaningful second paragraph. Obviously they still did things and had hobbies there's bundles of archeological evidence for that, but the breadth of possible things to do was much narrower.
Perhaps it's just a matter of personal preference but if forced to choose I will always prefer a wide variety of options with less time to do them in than a narrower variety of options with more time to do them in. Although obviously more time and more options is always better, and sufficient automation might get us there at some point.