3 ms·
New norm? My first job was at a startup in the mid 1980s. This was the norm then. Ever hear of the term "Death March?" In the 1990s we started to understand t
by taylodl 2y ago
New norm?
My first job was at a startup in the mid 1980s. This was the norm then. Ever hear of the term "Death March?"
In the 1990s we started to understand that working developers too much was counterproductive - they ended up adding more defects to the system than they were resolving or delivering. Part of what we learned was a developer is shot after being in the office for 10 hours. We also learned that you need at least one day a week where you weren't in the office at all. Altogether, that means we learned 60 hours per week is the max you can get and maintain quality and morale.
So, companies today are going to re-learn these lessons, you say?
Those who refuse to learn to learn history are doomed to repeat it, they say. I wouldn't want to return to the period from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. It was counterproductive and morale-destroying.
- josefritzishere 2y agoI have seen this as well and we literally called it a "Death March." You'd get a product in time for the demo but it wouldn't be pretty.
- matwood 2y agoThere's even a book, published in 1997. https://www.amazon.com/Death-March-Developers-Surviving-Impossible/dp/0137483104 https://www.amazon.com/Death-March-Developers-Surviving-Impo...
- spacemadness 2y agoWe’re talking the kind of founders who are too young to be any sort of wise and pivot every time their VC coughs and whose only drive is to be fabulously rich. Most will fail and leave a trail of burnout all the while running off the fumes of survivor bias in startups that succeeded. If one wants to go along for the ride, they should really know what they’re getting into.
- taylodl 2y agoYou have founders who are too young to be any sort of wise along with engineers who are too young to be any sort of wise. The two together will almost surely fail. This is why most startups are a waste of time and energy. It's the blind leading the blind over the edge of a cliff.
- solardev 2y ago60 hours? I've never seen more than maybe 25 or 30 hours a week of useful work from developers. I don't think most brains can sustain that level of focus for that long. Sounds like a recipe for making a bunch of buggy code that some other poor overworked sap has to go in and re-break in new ways later... Or maybe that's where the 10x developers shine. I wouldn't know, not being one and never having met one...