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Please don't do this if you have kids. No amount of money is worth giving up these irreplaceable years with your children. You cannot get these moments back. Y

Please don't do this if you have kids. No amount of money is worth giving up these irreplaceable years with your children. You cannot get these moments back. You can't "make it up to them later" when you are filthy rich. If you miss teaching your kid how to ride a bike, it's gone forever. No amount of money can fill that hole. I'm speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly.

barry-cotter 6y ago
> I’m speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly. Plenty of people don’t. I wouldn’t do what you did but no one gets to the top of any field working 40 hours a week. The number of people managing even 100 people who work 40 hour weeks is small.
- tuatoru 6y ago
  If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Me? I'm happy to live in what Felix Salmon called a "post-work society".
  - barry-cotter 6y ago
    > If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Plenty of people are quite happy to have relationships with those at the tops of their fields. I don’t feel it’s my place to tell them how to live their lives. Many people are the children of parents who worked a lot all their working lives. Most of them have good relationships with one or both of their parents and are reasonably happy with their lives in general. I don’t feel it’s my place to say they shouldn’t have been born.
    - romanoderoma 6y ago
      "A comprehensive review of studies on parents' work schedules and child development spanning the last three decades shows that parents' work schedules in evenings, nights and weekends, so called "nonstandard work schedules" or "unsociable work hours", may have negative consequences for children. When parents work such hours, children tended to have more behavioral problems, poorer cognitive ability (e.g., language, reading and mathematics), and were more likely to be overweight or obese than children in families where parents mostly worked during the daytime hours and week day. This review based on research in developed countries was conducted by a team of researchers from the US and Australia, led by Jianghong Li, a senior researcher from WZB Berlin Social Science Center. "
      - barry-cotter 6y ago
        The study in question for anyone interested in reading it. Parents’ Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Well-Being: A Critical Review of the Literature https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jianghong_Li/publication/256469797_Parents'_Nonstandard_Work_Schedules_and_Child_Well-Being_A_Critical_Review_of_the_Literature/links/553e0d370cf29b5ee4bcfb29/Parents-Nonstandard-Work-Schedules-and-Child-Well-Being-A-Critical-Review-of-the-Literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jianghong_Li/publicatio...
- slyall 6y ago
  " I'll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. When opportunity knocks, you don't want to be driving to a maternity hospital or sitting in some phony-baloney church. Or synagogue. " - Monty Burns

barry-cotter 6y ago

> I’m speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly. Plenty of people don’t. I wouldn’t do what you did but no one gets to the top of any field working 40 hours a week. The number of people managing even 100 people who work 40 hour weeks is small.

tuatoru 6y ago
If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Me? I'm happy to live in what Felix Salmon called a "post-work society".
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  > If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Plenty of people are quite happy to have relationships with those at the tops of their fields. I don’t feel it’s my place to tell them how to live their lives. Many people are the children of parents who worked a lot all their working lives. Most of them have good relationships with one or both of their parents and are reasonably happy with their lives in general. I don’t feel it’s my place to say they shouldn’t have been born.
  - romanoderoma 6y ago
    "A comprehensive review of studies on parents' work schedules and child development spanning the last three decades shows that parents' work schedules in evenings, nights and weekends, so called "nonstandard work schedules" or "unsociable work hours", may have negative consequences for children. When parents work such hours, children tended to have more behavioral problems, poorer cognitive ability (e.g., language, reading and mathematics), and were more likely to be overweight or obese than children in families where parents mostly worked during the daytime hours and week day. This review based on research in developed countries was conducted by a team of researchers from the US and Australia, led by Jianghong Li, a senior researcher from WZB Berlin Social Science Center. "
    - barry-cotter 6y ago
      The study in question for anyone interested in reading it. Parents’ Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Well-Being: A Critical Review of the Literature https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jianghong_Li/publication/256469797_Parents'_Nonstandard_Work_Schedules_and_Child_Well-Being_A_Critical_Review_of_the_Literature/links/553e0d370cf29b5ee4bcfb29/Parents-Nonstandard-Work-Schedules-and-Child-Well-Being-A-Critical-Review-of-the-Literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jianghong_Li/publicatio...
slyall 6y ago
" I'll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. When opportunity knocks, you don't want to be driving to a maternity hospital or sitting in some phony-baloney church. Or synagogue. " - Monty Burns