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Damn, all this corporate bashing during the last years... It sounded so right. Having worked at several startups in these years, and also co-founded one, I real

Damn, all this corporate bashing during the last years... It sounded so right. Having worked at several startups in these years, and also co-founded one, I realized the culture is often borderline insane. Working now at a more or less corporate startup, I'm so much happier.

exelius 9y ago
Yeah, for as much as people hate on being corporate, it really does keep a lid on a lot of the bad behavior you see at startups that gets swept under the table because of the informal nature of record keeping and decision making.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
Joeri 9y ago
I wouldn't call it corporate, I'd call it professional.
nightski 9y ago
Not only that, I personally found out I was fooling myself. Sure I was working until 8PM-9PM many days but found that I wasn't getting much at all done in the mornings. I'd hit my productivity stride around 1-2 PM after lunch. Getting in and starting early, finishing up early/mid afternoon and then enjoying the evenings either working on my own thing or just spending time with the SO has significantly increased quality of life.
- matt_wulfeck 9y ago
  sometimes I work on a problem way too late. Get stuck and try all kinds of things. Then I go home, eat, spend time with my family. The next day I open up my computer and immediately find and solve he issue. It's very hard for me to put a problem down and simply not think about it for a period of time, but as I've matured I've realized how important that skill is.
  - christophilus 9y ago
    I agree completely. It happens so consistently for me that you'd think letting a problem go would have gotten easier. It hasn't. The part of me that needs closure must be very strong and seems to function largely in the subconscious/below the rational level. It's a constant struggle to leave things behind and properly unwind at the end of the day.
  - posixplz 9y ago
    I used to work the same way. Then, I discovered that if I drastically cut (and, in most cases, eliminated entirely) the amount of time I spent toiling after-hours on a given issue, I was able to achieve the same level of next-day success. You touched on the key here: sleeping on a problem, letting your brain solve it in the background, is really quite effective.
- dasmoth 9y ago
  Any tricks that helped you achieve this? For me, the appeal of non-standard hours is that it's dramatically easier to focus when my coworkers aren't around (and to some extent, this is true even when remote). Truth be told, the optimum for me would probably be to just write mornings off completely and have them as the "family time" slot.
cortesoft 9y ago
It is not insane... if you are 24 with no family. Everyone thinks that startups are populated by young, single 20-somethings because those are the people who take risks and disrupt the status quo, when actually, it is because they are the only people who can put up with that lifestyle.
- cwyers 9y ago
  Or that the lifestyle is designed to attract and then wring every last bit of labor from gifted but low-paid and fungible workers.
- _yosefk 9y ago
  Couldn't it be both? That is, those are the people who can take risks because they are the only people who can put up with that lifestyle? (Not sure if it's true or more precisely to what extent it's true, in fact I'm pretty sure some startups did well without "that lifestyle", for instance a guy from LinkedIn wrote somewhere how they worked a standard work week; I'm just not seeing the contradiction implied by your "when actually...")
- falcolas 9y ago
  Even if you're 24 with no family... there are better things to be doing with your life than working 10-14 hour days. Some unsolicited advice: don't wait until your 30's to figure that out.
  - lacampbell 9y ago
    my background was working fast food, being a day labourer and long periods of unemployment. I knew this from day 1 going into tech. I find people who come from wealthier backgrounds than me tend to over work.
- ahoy 9y ago
  It's insane if you're 24 too. You're just too dumb to know that you're being had because you've never worked in an adult environment.
- 9y ago
wickawic 9y ago
Wait until someone says you work at a "lifestyle company" as if this is a bad thing.

exelius 9y ago

Yeah, for as much as people hate on being corporate, it really does keep a lid on a lot of the bad behavior you see at startups that gets swept under the table because of the informal nature of record keeping and decision making.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

Joeri 9y ago

I wouldn't call it corporate, I'd call it professional.

nightski 9y ago

Not only that, I personally found out I was fooling myself. Sure I was working until 8PM-9PM many days but found that I wasn't getting much at all done in the mornings. I'd hit my productivity stride around 1-2 PM after lunch. Getting in and starting early, finishing up early/mid afternoon and then enjoying the evenings either working on my own thing or just spending time with the SO has significantly increased quality of life.

matt_wulfeck 9y ago
sometimes I work on a problem way too late. Get stuck and try all kinds of things. Then I go home, eat, spend time with my family. The next day I open up my computer and immediately find and solve he issue. It's very hard for me to put a problem down and simply not think about it for a period of time, but as I've matured I've realized how important that skill is.
- christophilus 9y ago
  I agree completely. It happens so consistently for me that you'd think letting a problem go would have gotten easier. It hasn't. The part of me that needs closure must be very strong and seems to function largely in the subconscious/below the rational level. It's a constant struggle to leave things behind and properly unwind at the end of the day.
- posixplz 9y ago
  I used to work the same way. Then, I discovered that if I drastically cut (and, in most cases, eliminated entirely) the amount of time I spent toiling after-hours on a given issue, I was able to achieve the same level of next-day success. You touched on the key here: sleeping on a problem, letting your brain solve it in the background, is really quite effective.
dasmoth 9y ago
Any tricks that helped you achieve this? For me, the appeal of non-standard hours is that it's dramatically easier to focus when my coworkers aren't around (and to some extent, this is true even when remote). Truth be told, the optimum for me would probably be to just write mornings off completely and have them as the "family time" slot.

cortesoft 9y ago

It is not insane... if you are 24 with no family. Everyone thinks that startups are populated by young, single 20-somethings because those are the people who take risks and disrupt the status quo, when actually, it is because they are the only people who can put up with that lifestyle.

cwyers 9y ago
Or that the lifestyle is designed to attract and then wring every last bit of labor from gifted but low-paid and fungible workers.
_yosefk 9y ago
Couldn't it be both? That is, those are the people who can take risks because they are the only people who can put up with that lifestyle? (Not sure if it's true or more precisely to what extent it's true, in fact I'm pretty sure some startups did well without "that lifestyle", for instance a guy from LinkedIn wrote somewhere how they worked a standard work week; I'm just not seeing the contradiction implied by your "when actually...")
falcolas 9y ago
Even if you're 24 with no family... there are better things to be doing with your life than working 10-14 hour days. Some unsolicited advice: don't wait until your 30's to figure that out.
- lacampbell 9y ago
  my background was working fast food, being a day labourer and long periods of unemployment. I knew this from day 1 going into tech. I find people who come from wealthier backgrounds than me tend to over work.
ahoy 9y ago
It's insane if you're 24 too. You're just too dumb to know that you're being had because you've never worked in an adult environment.
9y ago

wickawic 9y ago

Wait until someone says you work at a "lifestyle company" as if this is a bad thing.