Absolutely. What the "this person probably made 3-5M a year" comments say to me is "if you pay someone enough, you can do whatever you want to them". We got rid

Absolutely. What the "this person probably made 3-5M a year" comments say to me is "if you pay someone enough, you can do whatever you want to them". We got rid of "right to contract" > 100 years ago for a reason: it's deeply exploitative. > There is actually no reason to believe that Stripe was successful because of its culture. Even if there is (and I agree there isn't), I would argue that cultures like this exist in order to compete in a race to the bottom of who can exploit their workers the most. That's certainly the feeling in presidential campaigns: you can't control a lot, but you can control how hard you work, so work the hardest. We need legislation to protect workers here, but in the absence of that, we need unions and leaders in the workplace to firmly reject this culture. > Nobody would care what this person thought about work culture (or hire them to consult on the topic) if they didn't graduate from a SV unicorn that generated mythic profit. Again agree. I will say there were some things in there that I liked and didn't think were toxic: the encouragement of open communication, the focus on precise language (something I constantly fail at), an emphasis on documentation, building teams (relying on others and being a person that can be relied on). But the overwork is just pure toxicity, e.g. this quote: > He looked down at his coffee for a moment. “I’m afraid I’m never going to see my best work again.” Far from being my best work, my worst work materialized because I worked 16-18 hours a day, 7 days a week, and my brain was so broken afterwards I was afraid I would never see my best work again. I've mostly recovered, but I can still feel a difference. My experience isn't singular or even rare, though I don't know if it's the norm. I've read about this happening to others in other sectors (gaming, FAANG through stress and toxicity). It's a real concern. I'm being pretty stark and unsentimental because I want to push strongly against any notion that this is romantic or honorable. Like you said, there's a real danger of this kind of mentality spreading and causing significant harm. Again, worth it for war (and maybe politics, I'm bearish though); not worth it for SV.