3 ms·
For certain types of academic work (e.g., writing a book) the mental cost of initially loading all the relevant material into working memory takes a very long t
by ivan_ah 12y ago
For certain types of academic work (e.g., writing a book) the mental cost of initially loading all the relevant material into working memory takes a very long time, so once I've paid this upfront cost, I tend to keep working as much as physically possible to amortize the upfront costs.
If I stop working at 5pm like salaried ppl (or say 8pm like startup ppl), then the next day I'll have to spend another 2--3 hours to get back to the same mental state. I rather continue push on and ship something tonight (with some damaging health effects) than pay the upfront costs again tomorrow.
- Moru 12y agoAnd burn out at 40 realizing that you can't keep a train of thought more than 2 minutes.
- ivan_ah 12y agoYou don't even need to get to 40---I have mini burnouts all the time! I keep saying to myself this is the last epic push, and then I'll take it easy and work in a civilized way from this point forward. Now's the time...
- dantheman 12y agoOr just structure your time differently, work really hard for 2 days. Take a day off, work a half day the next and work a normal day. There are gains from working in long shifts, but if it's done everyday they completely disappear and turn negative.