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Your opinion is probably popular among its audience, but really that’s a shame. There’s a wealth of evidence that such an investment in hours is either counterp

Your opinion is probably popular among its audience, but really that’s a shame. There’s a wealth of evidence that such an investment in hours is either counterproductive or short lived or both. The human impact can be devastating. The reward can be somewhere between fleeting and extremely deleterious. I’m a former workaholic who put in countless 60-100 hour weeks, and mostly I made that choice on my own, but I sincerely wish I had heeded the warnings sooner. My 60-100 hour weeks weren’t 50-150% more productive, ever. They were just exhausting, maybe permanently.

benatkin 4y ago
There are good reasons to avoid putting in 80 hour weeks but doing so because someone who put in 100 hour weeks had a bad experience isn't one of them. The level of stress isn't linear as the weekly number of hours increases.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  > someone who put in 100 hour weeks had a bad experience isn't one of them I wasn’t so much trying to make my example a reason, as to say that I relate my own experience to the wealth of evidence. > The level of stress isn't linear as the weekly number of hours increases. This is true, and I definitely can relate to that as well. And I’d still feel the same way, now, if I’d only ever worked 50 hours in a week. I’ll also add that the level of stress isn’t even consistent over multiple sustained weeks of the same level of overwork. When I even could work a 60 hour week, the second one in a row was much harder. The next one drastically harder still, and so on. And my probably-permanent burnout wasn’t from one particularly long week, it was from sustaining 60-100 hour weeks for about six months straight, with a lot of prior stressors, while developing a very strong internal rejection of sustaining anything like it while it was happening. In the end it was an action motivated by a sense of duty to address problems that put me in this position as fully as I could, so I could move on and never overwork for anyone or anything ever again. But I’m cautious even saying all of that now, because any way I frame it suggests there’s an overwork compromise that might make sense. There isn’t. In hindsight, the first week I put too much of myself into work was one too many.
  - benatkin 4y ago
    Ah, fair enough. Your opinion is still relevant. I would still like to hear from those that never exceeded 80 because there is a bit more of a chance they could have pulled it off.

benatkin 4y ago

There are good reasons to avoid putting in 80 hour weeks but doing so because someone who put in 100 hour weeks had a bad experience isn't one of them. The level of stress isn't linear as the weekly number of hours increases.

eyelidlessness 4y ago
> someone who put in 100 hour weeks had a bad experience isn't one of them I wasn’t so much trying to make my example a reason, as to say that I relate my own experience to the wealth of evidence. > The level of stress isn't linear as the weekly number of hours increases. This is true, and I definitely can relate to that as well. And I’d still feel the same way, now, if I’d only ever worked 50 hours in a week. I’ll also add that the level of stress isn’t even consistent over multiple sustained weeks of the same level of overwork. When I even could work a 60 hour week, the second one in a row was much harder. The next one drastically harder still, and so on. And my probably-permanent burnout wasn’t from one particularly long week, it was from sustaining 60-100 hour weeks for about six months straight, with a lot of prior stressors, while developing a very strong internal rejection of sustaining anything like it while it was happening. In the end it was an action motivated by a sense of duty to address problems that put me in this position as fully as I could, so I could move on and never overwork for anyone or anything ever again. But I’m cautious even saying all of that now, because any way I frame it suggests there’s an overwork compromise that might make sense. There isn’t. In hindsight, the first week I put too much of myself into work was one too many.
- benatkin 4y ago
  Ah, fair enough. Your opinion is still relevant. I would still like to hear from those that never exceeded 80 because there is a bit more of a chance they could have pulled it off.