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I disagree. I think family and social life help rest and heal an intelligent mind. I think a person that is at the top of their field is there not because they

I disagree. I think family and social life help rest and heal an intelligent mind. I think a person that is at the top of their field is there not because they work 80 hour weeks, but because they have a certain spark in the manner that they approach their work; an ability to look at things objectively and from a distance, something that is hard to achieve by obsessively focusing on a single facet of life.

plg 13y ago
That is certainly the story that we so often hear from people at the top of their field. They say "my family is so important to me, spending time with them really grounds me" and then in the same breath you find out they leave for work before their kids wake up, and come home to have dinner with them for 1 hr and then go back to work, and then work all weekend. A sports analogy is apt here: I have a friend who when he was young used to play competitive rugby at the national level. He said that through high school and even varsity (university) teams, what really put people at the top was their drive, motivation, training, and also of course skill. At the national, world professional level however, it was different. One needed these ingredients of course to gain entrance to this level of play ... but once there, now what really separated the top say 10% from the rest came down to something rather simple: the extent to which you were willing to injure yourself. The best players were the ones that were willing to get concussions over and over again, to perform manoeuvres that resulted in high probability of broken bones, etc. He ended up quitting because he was not willing to hurt his body to such an extent that he would pay for it for the rest of his life. In essence the top players were the ones who were willing to become extreme, who were willing to sacrifice things most people valued in their life (their future health) in order to stay at the top. So it is in business, finance, academia, you name it. The people you will find at the top are the ones who have made the choice to sacrifice things that most people find valuable, in order to be the top of the top in their chosen field of work / study. Said differently: if you are trying to achieve top success, you will face the following over and over again: there will be times where you are faced with the choice: work late into the night and miss your son's birthday party, or go home and try to catch up in the morning. Take that work trip for a week even though your wife is sick at home and needs help with the kids, or don't take the work trip. There will always be someone else at work who will be willing to do the things you are unwilling to do. It's nice to talk about modern and sympathetic work environments that value well rounded lifestyles but man, it's a jungle out there, this is a fantasy, when the shit hits the fan.
- null_ptr 13y ago
  > There will always be someone else at work who will be willing to do the things you are unwilling to do. That sounds more like getting to the top of your office or company, rather than the top of your field. I was thinking about the people that invent and create liberally, outside the constraints of product deadlines and work hierarchies. Fantasy indeed :-)

plg 13y ago

That is certainly the story that we so often hear from people at the top of their field. They say "my family is so important to me, spending time with them really grounds me" and then in the same breath you find out they leave for work before their kids wake up, and come home to have dinner with them for 1 hr and then go back to work, and then work all weekend. A sports analogy is apt here: I have a friend who when he was young used to play competitive rugby at the national level. He said that through high school and even varsity (university) teams, what really put people at the top was their drive, motivation, training, and also of course skill. At the national, world professional level however, it was different. One needed these ingredients of course to gain entrance to this level of play ... but once there, now what really separated the top say 10% from the rest came down to something rather simple: the extent to which you were willing to injure yourself. The best players were the ones that were willing to get concussions over and over again, to perform manoeuvres that resulted in high probability of broken bones, etc. He ended up quitting because he was not willing to hurt his body to such an extent that he would pay for it for the rest of his life. In essence the top players were the ones who were willing to become extreme, who were willing to sacrifice things most people valued in their life (their future health) in order to stay at the top. So it is in business, finance, academia, you name it. The people you will find at the top are the ones who have made the choice to sacrifice things that most people find valuable, in order to be the top of the top in their chosen field of work / study. Said differently: if you are trying to achieve top success, you will face the following over and over again: there will be times where you are faced with the choice: work late into the night and miss your son's birthday party, or go home and try to catch up in the morning. Take that work trip for a week even though your wife is sick at home and needs help with the kids, or don't take the work trip. There will always be someone else at work who will be willing to do the things you are unwilling to do. It's nice to talk about modern and sympathetic work environments that value well rounded lifestyles but man, it's a jungle out there, this is a fantasy, when the shit hits the fan.

null_ptr 13y ago
> There will always be someone else at work who will be willing to do the things you are unwilling to do. That sounds more like getting to the top of your office or company, rather than the top of your field. I was thinking about the people that invent and create liberally, outside the constraints of product deadlines and work hierarchies. Fantasy indeed :-)