You guys are all totally missing the point. The whole concept of an X hour work week is stupid for most of us on HN in knowledge intensive industries. It make

You guys are all totally missing the point. The whole concept of an X hour work week is stupid for most of us on HN in knowledge intensive industries. It makes sense if the work you're doing is a direct function of time - think receptionists, cashiers, phone customer service, assembly line workers. If the work is knowledge intensive, then your output is generally not a mere function of hours worked. In software engineering, productivity can vary enormously when you're "in-the-zone" vs. feeling tired and sluggish. I'm not talking about a mere 15% difference in peak productivity vs. least productive, I'm talking multiples (short example I wrote http://www.jbernier.com/how-to-work-efficiently-and-stop-wasting-your-time http://www.jbernier.com/how-to-work-efficiently-and-stop-was...). Judging an employee by "hours of ass in chair in office staring at computer screen" in a knowledge intensive field is an extremely inaccurate and lazy metric, used by non-technical managers who can't think of better ways to gauge the output of their employees.