It's unfair to blame this on management drones - this propensity for mindless overwork is a key component of geek culture. We brought this upon ourselves, in ma

It's unfair to blame this on management drones - this propensity for mindless overwork is a key component of geek culture. We brought this upon ourselves, in many ways, though unscrupulous companies certainly have taken advantage of it. How many other fields and subcultures glorify and celebrate caffeine-fueled binges and lack of sleep? How many subcultures form competitions around how horribly you can abuse your body for nerd points? Hell, as a nerdy kid growing up, how many of your fellow nerds shunned you for daring to branch out and do non-nerdy things on the side? For a bunch of ostracized people we sure as hell do a lot of it on our own. This translates not just to big companies but to founders too. There is a pernicious perception that if you're not mindlessly devoted at all hours of the day (waking or otherwise) to your startup/work that you are unworthy. The geek subculture has never really known moderation. It's sad that this article needs to exist, but bad management is really only the surface. This goes pretty deep.