I just finished reading The Clean Coder and it puts into words what I always knew how to do instinctively I think. I've never worked in the game industry where

I just finished reading The Clean Coder and it puts into words what I always knew how to do instinctively I think. I've never worked in the game industry where there may be strong political reasons to submit to such working conditions. I've rarely had to work over-time (mainly writing web applications and servers) and when I did it was usually of my own volition. The problem with doing is that you burn out a lot faster than you think. Being frustrated and unhappy can interfere with doing your job as a programmer. We're paid to think and good thinking can only happen when you have a clear, healthy state of mind. If I've ever done "crunch time" against my will it's usually because some manager or sales person went above my head and made promises without clearing it with me. That's very unprofessional IMO. It's also unprofessional to avoid taking the initiative to righting that sort of wrong. It's like watching someone walk backwards into traffic and not doing anything to stop them. If you're part of the team, you're going to be hurting yourself too. (And I think it took me a few tries to realize this). So I dunno... there are probably a lot of pressures in the game industry that help this nasty practice persist... but if it's not worth it, Pachter is right: move on. Life's too short and there's better work to be had.