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Totally agreed. One not actually unfortunate aspect of the preferability of sane to insane work hours is that a lot of aspects of corporate culture that are mu
by kenko 13y ago
Totally agreed.
One not actually unfortunate aspect of the preferability of sane to insane work hours is that a lot of aspects of corporate culture that are much esteemed in startup-land are really basically designed to get you to work insane hours, from undergrad-dorm-esque offices (hey, remember when we pulled all-nighters all the time and it was totally cool?), to employer provision of services since you wouldn't otherwise have time to run errands, to, most mind-bogglingly to me, employer provision of dinner. It really shocks me when I see a company drawing attention to how it provides free evening meals to its employees (or just to its engineering staff or whatever), because why the fuck would I be there at dinner time? And why are you all stretched so thin in the first place? (I mean, at my actual job, I am there at dinner time, on occasion. Which is less than ideal. But at least no one acts as if that's a great state of affairs.) And that doesn't get into the corrosive mindset according to which your job is supposed to be your primary leisure pursuit as well, because you love it so damn much.
- hkmurakami 13y agoA company I was at served complimentary dinners at 8pm. You can imagine what the culture was like (loved my team though)
- nooron 13y agoI remember the time I pulled a punch of all nighters in undergrad. I weakened my immune system and contracted a four-month spell of mono. It's absolutely a corrosive mindset. It's also one not conducive to learning new tricks or to meaningful thinking– just shallow processing, to paraphrase Nassim Taleb. Don't get me wrong, I'll be up late tonight. I've got some big things tomorrow that I need to prep for. It happens once in a while. Sleep's important, but the kind of masochistic bullshit you correctly ID isn't. Or shouldn't be.
- solistice 13y agoI had a similar thing happen to me, but still in highschool, where I pulled allnighters to make an insanely stringent schedule work so I could catch up to those pesky A+sians that played the Violin and helped blind orphans speak (or something along those lines). I mean workwise, I feel better sprinting short burst than to walk for long periods, but trying to take on a 4 year death marathon, starting at 6 in the morning and ending 2 in the evening, wasn't much of a bright idea. I ended up crashing every second term, to get sick weekly during that time and to pull down my hard earned grades into the D range. I believe that the mind is a lot like muscle in that respect. Don't excercise it, and it will atrophy. Strain it constantly, and it will break down, along with your bodily health. The point to building mental muscle seems to be alternating between periods of excertion and recuperation. Anyone telling you that carrying weights constantly is the path to strenght is proably trying to get you to build their pyramids, pulling stone slabs up an incline day and night.
- nooron 13y agoJust saw your very eloquent reply to my comment. Great analogy.
- nijk 13y agoI don't want to go home from work to go to the dry cleaner or make dinner for one. I like programming more than butlering and maiding and driving around on errands.
- rhizome 13y agoa lot of aspects of corporate culture that are much esteemed in startup-land are really basically designed to get you to work insane hours, from undergrad-dorm-esque offices This is how margins are increased (runway gain) by the people who are going to be selling the company: cheap offices and more hours under the same salary. You want respect for your time from a startup? Work hourly.