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> No programmers really work 60-80 hours a week, especially in a 5 day span. That is a 12-16 hour day, 5 days a week. Who works only 5 days a week? Saturday... sure take the day, but many of us end up working Sundays to get everything ready for Monday mornings. Making sure all the issues are prepared, reports for the past week have been written, all of our tasks for the week are defined and prioritized... 8-10 hours…
I seem to be alone in this, but I actually do about 25-30 hours of actual programming work each week. And that's sit-down-and-concentrate-and-build-shit work. I'm pretty ruthless about declining extraneous meetings and I keep my door closed most of the time. I think it's reasonable to have 25% of a 40-hour week be for meetings, helping other people, eating lunch, sitting in on interviews, and learning/trying out new…
I work from home, and I have a high enough social standing in my company that I can simply decline incoming phone calls whenever I want. As a result, like you, I can get a shitload of work done.
Most developers aren't so lucky though. That's why the productivity norm in our industry is closer to 10 hours per week, maybe 15.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "The day is typically regarded as 8AM to 8PM." Did the building have nets under the windows?
That's pretty SOP for the video game industry: low wages and insane work hours.
Standard expectations of 12 hour days is most certainly not the norm.
The "IPO-ing will make me exceedingly wealthy" scenario is certainly one way to get an 60-80 hour work week. The other is to be in a business that the employee is passionate about for intrinsic reasons. If the employee is a "true believer" in the company's mission, that can be a motivator to go above and beyond. Using technology and/or techniques that the employee is interested in learning can be a useful driver. Som…
So, if you give a shit about 20% of your job, and your job tolerates you doing personal stuff (slash miscellaneous browsing) for a few hours a week, then sure, 40 hours can be sustainable. On the other hand, if this job is your passion, work is stimulating, and you've got things you feel positive ownership over, then having 60-80 hour work weeks isn't necessarily unhealthy (so long as you're aware if and when those drives start to dwindle).
The other upshot of this theory is it dismantles argument that side projects hurt employees' productivity. The extra time spent pursuing your own passions simply isn't draining in the same way implementing others' ideas is. If anything, it adds motivation to the day-to-day stuff, knowing you'll learn skills at work that help the side project you really care about.
I would estimate that my team puts in (per person) on average about 5-6 hours per day writing code. About 2 hours go to emails, daily meetings, demos and architecture discussions etc.
I have very few interruptions during the day and usually 1-2 meetings pre-scheduled that are 30 min in duration each.
My phone is usually on silent for all notifications except calls and I turn off email as well when I need to focus. I take a short 5 min break every 45 min or so. I avoid HN/Facebook etc during the work day.
There is very little stress, we work towards a defined goal and have daily updates on the progress and what everyone focuses on. Deadlines are very rare.
I seem to be alone in this, but I actually do about 25-30 hours of actual programming work each week. And that's sit-down-and-concentrate-and-build-shit work. I'm pretty ruthless about declining extraneous meetings and I keep my door closed most of the time. I think it's reasonable to have 25% of a 40-hour week be for meetings, helping other people, eating lunch, sitting in on interviews, and learning/trying out new…
There's a fascinating corollary on "effective working time" research. I've seen the numbers multiple times in Finnish press, but have hard time even finding them now - and can't recall ever seeing these figures in English media.
According to work wellbeing research done (at least partially) in Finland, knowledge workers can achieve approximately 5.5h of effective work a day. Any hours much beyond that are mostly wasted due to the level of concentration required.
This number chimes well with your estimate: 25-30 hours of effective work per week. I'm quite confident these figures would come up again and again.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because you know that you go full throttle for 3-5 years and then you have the possibility to retire. I would sacrifice 5 years of my life in order to get financial freedom for the rest of it.
And then you get run over by a bus.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is so awesome... you have a door?!?
Many buildings in areas with lots of defense and medical industry will be set up to be all offices.
I absolutely believe giving developers the freedom to choose a personal space with walls and doors is very essential to productivity.
and for every programmer claims to work that much, you also get two of them complaining on the costant shit the overworked one produces and have to fix strange bug half their time
eventually the software becomes a mess of tangled issues and advancement grinds to an halt irregardless of amount of time spent
I seem to be alone in this, but I actually do about 25-30 hours of actual programming work each week. And that's sit-down-and-concentrate-and-build-shit work. I'm pretty ruthless about declining extraneous meetings and I keep my door closed most of the time. I think it's reasonable to have 25% of a 40-hour week be for meetings, helping other people, eating lunch, sitting in on interviews, and learning/trying out new…