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80 Hours a Week ... For What?
- brett 20y agoI can't say the 20-30 hours contracting he mentions at the end is the best option in the context of entrepreneurship (all other things being equal it's really hard to complain about; definitely don't tell any of my friends I'm naysaying). I've been doing it for a while now. What you don't realize is that you can't turn off wanting to solve problems and build stuff well. So whatever you're stuck building is going to suck up your thoughts. As long as there are problems to be solved you'll find yourself working on them. I'm guessing more generally thats how people get hackers to work for 80 hours for (relatively) nothing.
- jaggederest 20y agoUseless. Extrinsic motivation will never get someone to work productively for 80 hours a week. After somewhere around 30-ish it's gotta be intrinsic desire-to-make-thing-better, not 'ooh I get paid more'
- pg 20y agoWorked for me.
- jaggederest 20y agoAre you sure your motives were entirely pay-by-the-minute? Aren't you proud of what you built? Pride is intrinsic motivation. Joy of programming is intrinsic motivation. Beating the other guy is intrinsic motivation. 'If I write five more lines I get another dollar' is extrinsic motivation
- sbraford 20y agoYes, to work 80 I'd better damn near have a crapload of equity. OR, it's gotta be a YouTube, Facebook, or some other really hot startup with tons of growth and potential. (not another also ran like a good chunk of Web 2.0 startups are becoming... sadly)
- dfranke 20y agoI think you need two out of three: 1. Desire to make things better. 2. Desire to get rich. 3. Pressure from friends to succeed.