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'r

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.