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> Its been proved scientifically that people encounter diminising returns past 40-50 hour work weeks In the average case. People who build billion-dollar busi
by obstacle1 11y ago
> Its been proved scientifically that people encounter diminising returns past 40-50 hour work weeks
In the average case.
People who build billion-dollar businesses are not the average case.
That isn't to say everyone should grind super hard. People should, however, have the self-awareness to recognize whether or not they are capable of high levels of achievement. Few people are.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoTravis Kalanick is grinding super hard. Are people going to call him average when Uber fails? Elon Musk is grinding super hard, but he has different market and regulatory forces to contend with (no one stops you from going to space or making batteries and electric cars, everyone is going to stop you from breaking transportation and labor laws). Being "superhuman" doesn't make you terribly more likely to succeed.
- JonFish85 11y ago"Travis Kalanick is grinding super hard. Are people going to call him average when Uber fails?" He'll be long gone before Uber fails. They're probably going to dump all of the liability onto the public markets, he'll probably resign to focus on other projects or some such, and leave some MBA schmuck to deal with the mess.
- AJ007 11y agoHow many hours can someone, average or not, work before they start making more bad decisions than good ones? The problem with 50 hour+ work weeks is at some point, depending on the individuals outside life, they enter a period of sleep deprivation. Is it a characteristic of most successful founders that they can make good decisions in high stress situations while sleep deprived?
- silverlake 11y agoSurgical residents work 100+ hours a week. They are working on life/death situations. Somehow they manage to not kill most people.
- danieltillett 11y agoI am always surprised that letting residents work such long hours is acceptable given the risks involved. Does anyone want to operated on by someone who is late into their third back to back shift?
- alxndr 11y agoIf the choice comes down to having a sleep deprived surgeon do your surgery, versus not having the surgery, then some people will choose the sleep deprived surgeon.
- danieltillett 11y agoSome people might, but it does not seem too common for a resident surgeon to tell a patient before cutting them open something along these lines: “Hay good fellow I haven’t slept for 48 hours and I can hardly tell which end of the scalpel to hold - do you want me to operate or not?”
- toomuchtodo 11y agoPerhaps the AMA shouldn't restrict the number of residents then, in order to keep surgeon salaries high. Lives > Profit.
- danieltillett 11y agoWell there is this slight issue. Actually the bigger problem is that AMA allows surgeons to keep their license without spending a reasonable amount of time in hospitals. There are enough surgeons trained to ensure that hospitals are always staffed with well rested people, they just aren’t willing to work when they are actually needed.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoSo import doctors from other countries. Its okay to depress tech worker salaries using H1Bs but not doctors?