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“There’s always someone working harder than you.” People hate that it’s the truth... but I think it’s really about working smart, not hard. Recovery periods ar

“There’s always someone working harder than you.” People hate that it’s the truth... but I think it’s really about working smart, not hard. Recovery periods are important. If you can produce the same work product in 70% of the hours of someone else, you get more recovery time which is an asset. It also seems the refrain of “70 hour weeks” often does not mean 70 hours of coding/producing, but 70 hours of availability to respond quickly to teammates, customers, investors etc. so that you keep everyone unblocked and moving forward.

ht85 8y ago
I think the context is very important. When you're an employee, while the quality of your work will affect your outcome, there is a "good enough" performance past which your efforts will have diminishing returns. If you bootstrap a startup with a very small team, anything can make or break it. Any second, any thought, and ounce of energy you're not spending on it could be the demise of the whole project. The amount of work the human body can produce in a survival situation is astounding. If you truly want to succeed, this is the state of mind you're going to be in. > it’s really about working smart, not hard. What about both? > 70 hours of availability For around 18 months, my day looked like that: - 10h wake up, big breakfast, stretch, shower - 11h - 12h talk with rest of team, figure out the most important thing to do (sometimes ignore that step and resume grind from previous day) - 12h - 18h 90% coding, 10% infrastructure / research / testing / feedback - 18h - 21h run errands, eat, help a bit around the house, spend time with girlfriend (now wife :) - 21h - 4h 100% coding This would be every single day, except for 1-2 days every other week that I would dedicate to socializing and relaxing. I now work around 4 hours a day, fully focused, and I'd say it takes me 3 days to do what I would do in one 14 hours stretch back then. Productivity is slightly higher as I do less inattention mistakes, solve hard problems and figure out the right abstraction faster. That doesn't account for that much when you spend most of your time writing code and testing though.

ht85 8y ago

I think the context is very important. When you're an employee, while the quality of your work will affect your outcome, there is a "good enough" performance past which your efforts will have diminishing returns. If you bootstrap a startup with a very small team, anything can make or break it. Any second, any thought, and ounce of energy you're not spending on it could be the demise of the whole project. The amount of work the human body can produce in a survival situation is astounding. If you truly want to succeed, this is the state of mind you're going to be in. > it’s really about working smart, not hard. What about both? > 70 hours of availability For around 18 months, my day looked like that: - 10h wake up, big breakfast, stretch, shower - 11h - 12h talk with rest of team, figure out the most important thing to do (sometimes ignore that step and resume grind from previous day) - 12h - 18h 90% coding, 10% infrastructure / research / testing / feedback - 18h - 21h run errands, eat, help a bit around the house, spend time with girlfriend (now wife :) - 21h - 4h 100% coding This would be every single day, except for 1-2 days every other week that I would dedicate to socializing and relaxing. I now work around 4 hours a day, fully focused, and I'd say it takes me 3 days to do what I would do in one 14 hours stretch back then. Productivity is slightly higher as I do less inattention mistakes, solve hard problems and figure out the right abstraction faster. That doesn't account for that much when you spend most of your time writing code and testing though.