Why You Should Only Work Three Days a Week & More News You Can't Miss Today

SIGN ME UP – Tim Ferriss, of Four-Hour Workweek fame, now has a powerful ally. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim thinks we work too much too and is calling for a three-day workweek. His plan is to limit work to three days a week but in longer shifts of 10-12 hours and push the retirement age into the 70s. Before you mistake him for a conscientious objector to global capitalism, hear him out. The typical modern worker is exhausted, and therefore both unhappy and less productive than she could be, he argued at a business conference in Paraguay. She often spends much of her career setting aside her personal aspirations for the day when she'll have the time to explore them – retirement. Meanwhile the retirement age in many economies – 60 to 65 – harkens back to a different era when life expectancy was much shorter. Either one gets to retirement too unhealthy to indeed enjoy oneself or a very productive member of society is suddenly set aside to spend the next 20-30 years in idleness at the community's expense. Either way, no one wins. (And, I would add and it's been studied, one often doesn't stop working because they're old — one becomes old because they stop working.) If work were a healthier, less consuming part of our regular lives, we'd be more productive, more creative, and we'd probably be ok with making it last a while longer, Carlos Slim argues. And that doesn't sound unreasonable.

Slim isn't the first to argue for bringing a bit of sanity back to our modern worklives. Jason Fried, of 37signals, famously instated a four-day workweek and a month for his employees to work on whatever they wanted. My favorite, designer Stefan Sagmeister, closes his studio for a year every seven years to recharge his creativity somewhere in the world. In his (outstanding) "Happy Show," he proposes this model:

(A commenter on LinkedIn once aptly pointed out that the yellow "Learning" line should continue throughout.) What model would you propose? And what would you do with all the time off?

NETFLIX IS THE NEW BLACK – Netflix reported earnings in line with expectations and profits that have more than doubled as people keep signing up despite a price hike. Netflix now claims more than 50 million subscribers and is looking beyond the seas for the next 50. The on-demand media company has long planned a European rollout this fall (yes, please!) and will keep investing heavily in international markets, CEO Reed Hastings warned. I.e. those lofty profits may take a hit for the greater good. “Ninety-five percent of people who live on the planet live outside the United States, and generally for global Internet businesses about 80 percent of the usage is outside the U.S.,” Hastings told the New York Times. That attention to what's going on in the world and always looking to the next thing, from snail mailing DVDs to streaming, original content and international expansion, is what makes Netflix a great model to follow, writes freelance producer London Olin on LinkedIn: "Netflix has built a destination rather than a novelty, while evolving their brand on quality – doing it the smart way for the long haul."

NEW IPHONE? WHERE?! – Apple is also reporting earnings today so you know the tech press must be awash with rumors. IPhone 6 is of course the talk of the town: the company has ordered between 70 and 80 million models from its suppliers in both 4.7- and 5.5-inch versions, says the Wall Street Journal. That's about 20 million more than for the iPhone 5S and 5C launch (a bit of a flop, by Apple's standards anyway) so this demonstrates that the Cupertino crew is feeling pretty confident. This also suggests, as was already rumoured, a phone more akin to the larger-screened Samsung Galaxy line.

IF YOU READ JUST ONE STORY – ... then I admire your self-control. To celebrate its 90th anniversary and its Website redesign, the New Yorker has ditched the paywall and opened up its Web archive until the fall. "What we’re trying to do is to make a website that is to the Internet what the magazine is to all other magazines," says the site's editor and LinkedIn Influencer Nicholas Thompson. To help you navigate the maze of stellar nonfiction narratives, the magazine will curate collections throughout the summer. Business Insider is also suggesting eight stories to start with. What would you recommend?

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