31–40 of 70 posts
> But if you work for Tesla, the minimum is really a 50-hour week and there are times when it'll be 60- to 80-hour weeks. And we recently saw statistics here on HN proving that working more than 40 hours/week for long durations is counter-productive. Alas, I'm sorry to see Elon Musk falling for this "tough men work hard" nonsense.
Statistics aren't people. In other words, Your Mileage May Vary.
I must say, I've been on the wall about the Model S, being a hard-core auto enthusiast and really loving my gears (e.g. I only drive stick shift). But this interview, the revelation that Elon Musk is out there personally inspecting each and every car (well, more or less), that the guy designing my cars is even more of an anal-retentive OC-freak than I am who won't laugh and scoff at me like the guy at the Audi dealer…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that people who expect and look forward to working +50 hours/week would perform much better than people who are guilted into it. Also sounds like they're well compensated for it. I liked his "special forces" analogy.
People who want to be pilots love flying. Nonetheless they're not allowed to fly more than a number of hours, because passion, motivation and whatever you want won't prevent you from messing up when you're tired. Amphetamines were invented for the military and particularly the special ops, mind you. As you know they come with their problems, too. So please stop bullshitting yourself. As much as I like and respect Elo…
But you know what? Nobody told the kids in the garage down the street. You know... the ones who are working 60+ hours a week, and who are about to kick your company's ass, because there's no place on Earth they'd rather be than in that garage.
I really enjoy this article and hope tesla succeeds, but I am always turned off by plug-in EVs. Say for example, he does achieve 30 minutes charging for 3 hours driving. And say I drive from SF to LA. after about 3 hours, there is this one in n out station, that everyone stops at, are we going to have 20 superchargers at that station? in off hours of the day, those will not all be utilized, thus lose money. It seems…
That's a legitimate issue. There's talk of eventually having battery-swap stations -- you drive in and your battery is swapped out for a freshly charged one. There are obviously practical difficulties, not least of which is the size and weight of EV batteries and the fact that there's no standardization right now. But it's expected that these issues will eventually be addressed as the system's advantages become obvious.
I really enjoy this article and hope tesla succeeds, but I am always turned off by plug-in EVs. Say for example, he does achieve 30 minutes charging for 3 hours driving. And say I drive from SF to LA. after about 3 hours, there is this one in n out station, that everyone stops at, are we going to have 20 superchargers at that station? in off hours of the day, those will not all be utilized, thus lose money. It seems…
http://dsc.discovery.com/pdi/files/2012/02/Tesla-ModelS-plat...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well at least he's upfront about it. Better than an org that says you should work 40 hr weeks then presses deadlines so hard you have no choice than to go over.
That's a good point. It sucks to work overtime constantly when you had other plans, commitments, etc, especially when the bosses are ungrateful. On the other hand, when working on something that you know upfront is going to be an enormous challenge, and you really love what you're doing, the hours don't seem to matter. The problem for me becomes more of a physical thing. I can work a 70+ hour week or two, but then it…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that people who expect and look forward to working +50 hours/week would perform much better than people who are guilted into it. Also sounds like they're well compensated for it. I liked his "special forces" analogy.
People who want to be pilots love flying. Nonetheless they're not allowed to fly more than a number of hours, because passion, motivation and whatever you want won't prevent you from messing up when you're tired. Amphetamines were invented for the military and particularly the special ops, mind you. As you know they come with their problems, too. So please stop bullshitting yourself. As much as I like and respect Elo…
Correct me if I'm wrong but quick googling shows that pilots are restricted to 100 hours of flight time per month by the FAA. That's 25 hours per week. Perhaps flight time is not exactly comparable to building cars time?
> So please stop bullshitting yourself.
I don't appreciate that.
I have friends who can eat twice the calories each meal that I have and don't gain a pound. Some of them sleep 5 hours per night and they're perfectly rested. Some of my friends spend 60 hours a week at work and still always feel behind.
Turns out that not everyone is built the same. I can't have a slice of pizza every day. I need at least 8.5 hours of sleep per night to function. I can accomplish as much work in 30 hours as some of my peers take 60 hours to do.
I can't sustain long work hours unless I'm working for myself, but not everyone is built the same.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who want to be pilots love flying. Nonetheless they're not allowed to fly more than a number of hours, because passion, motivation and whatever you want won't prevent you from messing up when you're tired. Amphetamines were invented for the military and particularly the special ops, mind you. As you know they come with their problems, too. So please stop bullshitting yourself. As much as I like and respect Elo…
> People who want to be pilots love flying. Nonetheless they're not allowed to fly more than a number of hours, because passion, motivation and whatever you want won't prevent you from messing up when you're tired. Correct me if I'm wrong but quick googling shows that pilots are restricted to 100 hours of flight time per month by the FAA. That's 25 hours per week. Perhaps flight time is not exactly comparable to buil…
It's not comparable in the consequences of you messing up because you're tired (150 deaths vs a misaligned rubber joint that leaks). However the underlying principle remains; when people work too much, they get tired and they makes many more errors. So it Musk wants absolutely perfect cars, he must gives more time off to the workers. Basic common sense supported by experience and scientific studies.
> > So please stop bullshitting yourself.
I don't appreciate that.
Sorry for the formulation, it wasn't targeting you, but this quite US-specific mix of protestant and macho ethos of hard work pushed to the absurd. Many, many people are dead sure _they_ can work so much more than the next guy and stay efficient.
> I have friends who can eat twice the calories each meal that I have and don't gain a pound. Some of them sleep 5 hours per night and they're perfectly rested. Some of my friends spend 60 hours a week at work and still always feel behind.
Yes, and some people can drink a bottle of wine everyday and never get cirrhosis, etc. Of course we're all different, and there probably are people that can work 60 (or maybe 80) hours a week and don't be tired and inefficient.
However you can't count on that, thus it's not reasonable to build a business model betting that you'll only get absolutely exceptional people with nearly super-human abilities in your team. Particularly when the number of employees is in the thousands (from the article Tesla currently has 2800 employees).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who want to be pilots love flying. Nonetheless they're not allowed to fly more than a number of hours, because passion, motivation and whatever you want won't prevent you from messing up when you're tired. Amphetamines were invented for the military and particularly the special ops, mind you. As you know they come with their problems, too. So please stop bullshitting yourself. As much as I like and respect Elo…
You may be right. Maybe working 50+ hours a week is always a net negative. Maybe a sane, family-friendly work environment will, in fact, maximize both the happiness and well-being of individual contributors and the productivity of the organization as a whole. But you know what? Nobody told the kids in the garage down the street. You know... the ones who are working 60+ hours a week, and who are about to kick your com…
Because they're 20 years old, and they'll do that only for a limited time anyway because even the energy from youth won't protect them from burnout. This is nice, heart-warming story we like to believe, but this is anecdote. In general, people work efficiently about 40 hours a week for long periods (months or years).
By the way, old asses like me have had their fair share of being in the office from 9AM to 22PM and you know what? While you're congratulating with your co-workers on what a bunch of hard-working supermen you are, you aren't actually getting anything done. It's incredibly hard to get things done 7 to 8 hours a day, it demands incredible energy and commitment; I don't pretend being even capable of this more than once or twice a week. Yes, I think that programming efficiently 40 hours a week is already nearly super-human, unless you're incredibly passionate and it's incredibly rewarding.
