4 ms·

People argue it here all the time but I'm certainly skeptical. The hardest intellectual work of my life, my undergrad at MIT, I spent far more than 8 hours a da

People argue it here all the time but I'm certainly skeptical. The hardest intellectual work of my life, my undergrad at MIT, I spent far more than 8 hours a day, 4 days a week on. The idea that all the undergrads there burning the midnight oil are just being foolish and don't they know they could get all their work done in less time doesn't pass the smell test for me.

akhilcacharya 7y ago
Most people don't do MIT level intellectual work...
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  Such an effort is also quite different from salaried work. When you are taking an undergraduate course you put a lot of effort into a finite project. You tend to have the energy reserve for something bounded like that, but it does come at a cost. Usually, at the age where you would enrol in an undergraduate program, the gains outweigh the cost, and the cost is often lowered significantly by the intrinsic motivation of working on your own interests. With salaried work the only effective limit is your retirement. Working more simply means more income, but if that extra income isn't needed, or doesn't net you enough extra benefits compared to simply having time off, the cost of being mentally engaged for such a large part of the week just doesn't weigh up to the gains. Sure, if your work is so engaging and rewarding that work itself is a pleasure, than it might pay off. But for most of us it just doesn't work that way. Work often means doing things were mostly others set the agenda, and while you may be good at what you do and find motivation in doing it, I've found that it rarely means that you can do it with the same sustained level of energy and quality for more than four eight hour days — and even that isn't a given.
salty_biscuits 7y ago
Yeah, but that is work towards a tangible goal with a fixed time to finish. It is easy to make a big push in those types of situations. In your vanilla work life, this stuff is no longer there anymore. You can't work like that forever with no payoff, delayed gratification only stetches so far.

akhilcacharya 7y ago

Most people don't do MIT level intellectual work...

Freak_NL 7y ago
Such an effort is also quite different from salaried work. When you are taking an undergraduate course you put a lot of effort into a finite project. You tend to have the energy reserve for something bounded like that, but it does come at a cost. Usually, at the age where you would enrol in an undergraduate program, the gains outweigh the cost, and the cost is often lowered significantly by the intrinsic motivation of working on your own interests. With salaried work the only effective limit is your retirement. Working more simply means more income, but if that extra income isn't needed, or doesn't net you enough extra benefits compared to simply having time off, the cost of being mentally engaged for such a large part of the week just doesn't weigh up to the gains. Sure, if your work is so engaging and rewarding that work itself is a pleasure, than it might pay off. But for most of us it just doesn't work that way. Work often means doing things were mostly others set the agenda, and while you may be good at what you do and find motivation in doing it, I've found that it rarely means that you can do it with the same sustained level of energy and quality for more than four eight hour days — and even that isn't a given.

salty_biscuits 7y ago

Yeah, but that is work towards a tangible goal with a fixed time to finish. It is easy to make a big push in those types of situations. In your vanilla work life, this stuff is no longer there anymore. You can't work like that forever with no payoff, delayed gratification only stetches so far.