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Seriously, do we honestly believe 80 hours a week coding is a good thing. What, is he this bad at coding. What about he spends 4 hours a week coding cause he’s

Seriously, do we honestly believe 80 hours a week coding is a good thing. What, is he this bad at coding. What about he spends 4 hours a week coding cause he’s so good at coding. Way more impressive.

andirk 3y ago
Might as well add LOC as a metric. Both can mean the person is extremely inefficient, over-engineering everything, and their eyes are begging for a break. However! The best engineers I've been around do work a lot and they like it.
- Xenoamorphous 3y ago
  I’m not sure why it’s seen as ok to work 100 hours per week, or even glorified. If instead of work it was something else it would be seen as a problem. 100 hours per week doesn’t leave room for anything else other than basic human needs. “They like it”, well all addicts like what they’re addicted to, it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
  - andirk 3y ago
    I think a lot of addicts despise their addiction. Exceptions are the few highly acceptable addictions in society such as coffee. Nonetheless, doing anything in excess can be detrimental to one's health and livelihood and should be kept in checked, monitored. OK now back to my 12 hour day. Not burnt out yet so I'm going to keep going. And yes, I LIKE IT!
  - infecto 3y ago
    When you are a founder and working in a company doing bleeding edge it’s easy to work lots of hours. Maybe it’s not the kind of environment for you but others thrive in it. Lots of high demand type roles out unrelated to engineering that also have large hour workloads and compensate exceptionally well.
    - Xenoamorphous 3y ago
      What do those people want the compensation for? To sleep on a mansion and back to work? Assuming they leave the office. What I’m trying to say is that it is an addiction like any other and should be treated as such, not glorified.
      - infecto 3y ago
        Yes we understood your idea the first time around. And you still miss the point. It might not be for you but many individuals genuinely love their work. Either because they founded it, like the area of work, the people, or some combination. It’s ok to not enjoy it yourself. Different strokes for different folks. I don’t think it should be culturally championed but I don’t see it as an immediate red flag especially in the case of a bleeding edge company like OpenAI.
        Xenoamorphous 3y ago
        And I think you might be the one missing the point, because you keep saying it’s ok for them because they love it. Surely all addicts love the thing they’re addicted to, but that doesn’t make it ok, even in the case where their addiction doesn’t ruin their lives short or mid term.
        infecto 3y ago
        We understand. You don’t agree with it. Thank you for sharing.
  - mr_mitm 3y ago
    Agreed. "I like it" might also just mean "I can't bear being alone with my thoughts" or "I can't deal with life and need the distraction". Not that that's always the case, it's probably more often than not in these situations and should be seen as a hint that there might be more going on.
makapuf 3y ago
80h a week doing stuff does not prove your level at it, it proves your work capacity. Being good at something lies in the result and/or appreciation of your work by skilled pairs, which also seem to be there.
- romafirst3 3y ago
  So why even claim he did 80 hours a week coding, while also being the chairman of the board? Can we get a pllleeeeeeaaaase???? He’s clearly a terrible programmer and/or a terrible chairman and to be honest this news says he’s at least 1 of 2 on the above.
  - CoastalCoder 3y ago
    Or perhaps he's just a really exceptional person. I don't see any comments here claiming that it's something that most people could do well.
  - aerhardt 3y ago
    You really think they'd let him anywhere near any of those two roles if he was pumping out tire fire code into production and constantly spewing erratic BS at strategy meetings the last eight years? Please.
  - ajdegol 3y ago
    Occasionally you meet people who shock you with how talented they are. I watched a couple of his presentations and he immediately reminded me of some of those people I’ve met before.
  - GamerAlias 3y ago
    Realistically the odds of gdb being a terrible programmer are very very slim. He has been in the field for at least a decade, published papers, given talks, was the CTO of stripe ( a company generally respected for having sick technical infrastructure). If he works an inordinate amount, then it's probably cause he loves it. I would guess he is much more likely to be world class than terrible

andirk 3y ago

Might as well add LOC as a metric. Both can mean the person is extremely inefficient, over-engineering everything, and their eyes are begging for a break. However! The best engineers I've been around do work a lot and they like it.

Xenoamorphous 3y ago
I’m not sure why it’s seen as ok to work 100 hours per week, or even glorified. If instead of work it was something else it would be seen as a problem. 100 hours per week doesn’t leave room for anything else other than basic human needs. “They like it”, well all addicts like what they’re addicted to, it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
- andirk 3y ago
  I think a lot of addicts despise their addiction. Exceptions are the few highly acceptable addictions in society such as coffee. Nonetheless, doing anything in excess can be detrimental to one's health and livelihood and should be kept in checked, monitored. OK now back to my 12 hour day. Not burnt out yet so I'm going to keep going. And yes, I LIKE IT!
- infecto 3y ago
  When you are a founder and working in a company doing bleeding edge it’s easy to work lots of hours. Maybe it’s not the kind of environment for you but others thrive in it. Lots of high demand type roles out unrelated to engineering that also have large hour workloads and compensate exceptionally well.
  - Xenoamorphous 3y ago
    What do those people want the compensation for? To sleep on a mansion and back to work? Assuming they leave the office. What I’m trying to say is that it is an addiction like any other and should be treated as such, not glorified.
    - infecto 3y ago
      Yes we understood your idea the first time around. And you still miss the point. It might not be for you but many individuals genuinely love their work. Either because they founded it, like the area of work, the people, or some combination. It’s ok to not enjoy it yourself. Different strokes for different folks. I don’t think it should be culturally championed but I don’t see it as an immediate red flag especially in the case of a bleeding edge company like OpenAI.
      - Xenoamorphous 3y ago
        And I think you might be the one missing the point, because you keep saying it’s ok for them because they love it. Surely all addicts love the thing they’re addicted to, but that doesn’t make it ok, even in the case where their addiction doesn’t ruin their lives short or mid term.
        infecto 3y ago
        We understand. You don’t agree with it. Thank you for sharing.
- mr_mitm 3y ago
  Agreed. "I like it" might also just mean "I can't bear being alone with my thoughts" or "I can't deal with life and need the distraction". Not that that's always the case, it's probably more often than not in these situations and should be seen as a hint that there might be more going on.

makapuf 3y ago

80h a week doing stuff does not prove your level at it, it proves your work capacity. Being good at something lies in the result and/or appreciation of your work by skilled pairs, which also seem to be there.

romafirst3 3y ago
So why even claim he did 80 hours a week coding, while also being the chairman of the board? Can we get a pllleeeeeeaaaase???? He’s clearly a terrible programmer and/or a terrible chairman and to be honest this news says he’s at least 1 of 2 on the above.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago
  Or perhaps he's just a really exceptional person. I don't see any comments here claiming that it's something that most people could do well.
- aerhardt 3y ago
  You really think they'd let him anywhere near any of those two roles if he was pumping out tire fire code into production and constantly spewing erratic BS at strategy meetings the last eight years? Please.
- ajdegol 3y ago
  Occasionally you meet people who shock you with how talented they are. I watched a couple of his presentations and he immediately reminded me of some of those people I’ve met before.
- GamerAlias 3y ago
  Realistically the odds of gdb being a terrible programmer are very very slim. He has been in the field for at least a decade, published papers, given talks, was the CTO of stripe ( a company generally respected for having sick technical infrastructure). If he works an inordinate amount, then it's probably cause he loves it. I would guess he is much more likely to be world class than terrible