Extra credit at school means something tangible. Extra credit at work rarely does. I think this message applies especially to people working in big tech and/or

Extra credit at school means something tangible. Extra credit at work rarely does. I think this message applies especially to people working in big tech and/or people working primarily on salary, not equity. When you have equity in a startup though, each person doing more of their best work can actually make a massive difference to the trajectory of the business. And if you're working on a promising business, working better and faster is the highest ROI thing that can be done. So it all depends.