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As someone who worked 10-14 hour days in their 20s, I know for a fact it made me more effective and I achieved more. I also scaled way back in my 30s to have mo

by madrox 3y ago

As someone who worked 10-14 hour days in their 20s, I know for a fact it made me more effective and I achieved more. I also scaled way back in my 30s to have more of a life. I don't regret either decision. What Carmack says maps to my own experiences. People making ad hominem attacks at Carmack for why he's wrong are just that may be in for a rude awakening in life. What I think is really at odds in the comments is this: people want to work less and feel like it's ok, but don't feel like it's appropriate to come out and say that.

bombcar 3y ago
10-12 hour days can be great for getting shit done especially if it takes time to get going. But that can also be combined with 3 or 4 day work weeks (and not necessarily repeated long weekends, day on day off day on can be good too for some people).
Schnitz 3y ago
I agree with you 100%. Carmack also says he ensures he gets enough sleep. As long as you get 7-8h a day and take care of yourself reasonably well with food and the occasional run you can work more than 40h/week focused and be very productive in those extra hours. What surprises me most about Carmack is that for him the “why am I working so much? for what? I want a life” moment never came but maybe that’s because he’s been his own boss for almost his whole life working on passion projects. He openly said for both Armadillo and Occulus/Facebook that he started doing less when the passion fades or the corporate BS became too much.
- gls2ro 3y ago
  Does this work if you want to have a family and say one child and have a healthy life? I dont see the hours there: - say you sleep 8h - 1h = taking care of your body (shower, toilet, washing hands) for entire day - 2h eating and eating prep - 1h lost in random tasks (a curier delivery, feeling an emotion, ...) you then have 12 hours to handle work and family and sport :D how less time to put for family per day? 1 hour and the family survives as as family over say 5 years of doing that? please note that I did not added shopping, paying bills, ... talking with friends...
dannersy 3y ago
One could argue the opposite: those who are defending Carmack are working too much and want to feel that it's worth it. Sure, I have had 16 hour days that we're worth it. I have also had only 10 hour days banging my head against the same problem for hours only to solve it in 10 minutes in the morning. I experience these diminishing returns on most of my longer days and am lucky enough to know how to identify them and walk away. I would hope everyone here would agree that Carmack is atypical. I think the real take away from the thread is that you should take time to know yourself, your potential and limits, what you want and what makes you happy, and what it takes to get there. Most of the comments I feel are arguing what the ideal way to work is, which is a farce. Maybe a lot of these comments are fueled from social/cultural/industry pressures telling them they should be a certain kind of engineer. I work in Sweden, and it seems from a work culture standpoint, they are far less interested in squeezing every ounce of value from their employees in comparison to the US. Meanwhile, I'd say they are still very competitive in a software sense, especially in gaming.

by madrox 3y ago

bombcar 3y ago

10-12 hour days can be great for getting shit done especially if it takes time to get going. But that can also be combined with 3 or 4 day work weeks (and not necessarily repeated long weekends, day on day off day on can be good too for some people).

Schnitz 3y ago

I agree with you 100%. Carmack also says he ensures he gets enough sleep. As long as you get 7-8h a day and take care of yourself reasonably well with food and the occasional run you can work more than 40h/week focused and be very productive in those extra hours. What surprises me most about Carmack is that for him the “why am I working so much? for what? I want a life” moment never came but maybe that’s because he’s been his own boss for almost his whole life working on passion projects. He openly said for both Armadillo and Occulus/Facebook that he started doing less when the passion fades or the corporate BS became too much.

gls2ro 3y ago
Does this work if you want to have a family and say one child and have a healthy life? I dont see the hours there: - say you sleep 8h - 1h = taking care of your body (shower, toilet, washing hands) for entire day - 2h eating and eating prep - 1h lost in random tasks (a curier delivery, feeling an emotion, ...) you then have 12 hours to handle work and family and sport :D how less time to put for family per day? 1 hour and the family survives as as family over say 5 years of doing that? please note that I did not added shopping, paying bills, ... talking with friends...

dannersy 3y ago

One could argue the opposite: those who are defending Carmack are working too much and want to feel that it's worth it. Sure, I have had 16 hour days that we're worth it. I have also had only 10 hour days banging my head against the same problem for hours only to solve it in 10 minutes in the morning. I experience these diminishing returns on most of my longer days and am lucky enough to know how to identify them and walk away. I would hope everyone here would agree that Carmack is atypical. I think the real take away from the thread is that you should take time to know yourself, your potential and limits, what you want and what makes you happy, and what it takes to get there. Most of the comments I feel are arguing what the ideal way to work is, which is a farce. Maybe a lot of these comments are fueled from social/cultural/industry pressures telling them they should be a certain kind of engineer. I work in Sweden, and it seems from a work culture standpoint, they are far less interested in squeezing every ounce of value from their employees in comparison to the US. Meanwhile, I'd say they are still very competitive in a software sense, especially in gaming.