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AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

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Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#71

I worked crazy hours in my early 20s because I liked it. I liked computers, I liked my team, and to be frank, I had not much else to do. If I went home early, I would be spending time on the internet anyway. But the thing is, unless you're building your own business, it just doesn't matter. No one will remember this in five years. In a corporate environment, every doc, every line of code you wrote will be replaced or…

> ” I worked crazy hours in my early 20s because I liked it. I liked computers, I liked my team, and to be frank, I had not much else to do. If I went home early, I would be spending time on the internet anyway.” This describes me almost exactly when I was in my 20s. However, I have far fewer regrets than you might. My career progressed a lot faster than it otherwise would have, and thanks to salary compounding my fa…

I have no regrets. My point is that it's easy to have regrets if you build your self-worth around the company and your impact there. That's the part that's almost always too ephemeral to matter.

The secret is that the "crazy hours" tricks works best in a normal company, because your contributions stand out. If you're in a place where everyone is expected to work 9-9-6, you're not getting ahead, you're just keeping up until you burn out.

Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#72

Don't take your health and lifestyle advice from start-up founders, episode 36. Elizabeth Holmes writes the same kind of nonsense. It's just an attempt to pass themselves off as exceptional beings who owe their success solely to their talent and iron discipline. I don't know anyone who can keep going in the long term by neglecting their sleep and their physical and mental health.

My least favorite genre of this are the ones who crow about working 60-70 hours per week and still making time for family or whatever, but it's because they're paying to make 30-40 hours of work that ordinary wage-earning folks do, go away. Laundry, lawn maintenance, getting the car in for an oil change, child care, running errands, cooking, doing your own accounting, waiting on hold to deal with erroneous medical bills, fixing that toilet that keeps running, cleaning the gutters, patching that hole a damn woodpecker put in your siding—people for whom all these things are purely optional activities that they can and do pay others to take care of, will act like they're just such hard workers, while actually working, in total, less than their employees.

Drives me up a wall.

Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#73

I noticed there is zero mention of burnout in the article, which is exactly what every one of these founders will get if they keep pushing at the crazy pace they are going at, and highlights the problem with this kind of mentality. Burnout is a bitch, at least in my case it felt like I developed ADHD. Couldn't focus on anything, couldn't remember things that were said at meetings. I managed to pull back and now thing…

I've just turned 40, have been married for almost 20 years, and now have a 9-month-old baby. I've spent most of what would otherwise be my free time working, ever since I was 15 and bought into the American idea of entrepreneurship and became obsessed with technology.

Before having the baby, I'd leave the premises maybe twice a week, forced by necessity, mostly for health reasons, and I couldn't care less most of the time about seeing a blue sky or hearing the birds sing.

I've probably never worked the insane hours some entrepreneurs put in, but I've definitely worked far more than most people I know. My wife is the same. We have a great relationship, and I love my daughter, who I'm lucky to spend time with every day since I set my own hours. But if there's one thing I'm always chasing hours to do more, is working, creating. It doesn't even feel like work, as long as it's something I'm building that's mine. Sure, there are grueling tasks I can't avoid, the real eat glass stuff. But even then, I wouldn't trade it.

I've never gotten truly rich, not in the way I once imagined I would. But it's not something that weighs on me, not even the idea that maybe I never will. The real reward has always been doing the things I love to do. Recently my wife has asked me more than once if I could make more money than I do now by working less in a company. Maybe so, and I'd probably work much less with a lighter load if I were in a company job, but the idea of going back to that doesn't excite me. I like the grueling work, I like building something of my own, and I like having my own routine, even if I end up working more this way.

Different strokes, I guess.

EDIT: typo.

Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#74
post #3

Seems generally worse for the world if we want to force everyone to work 24/7 with no joy or interests outside of work. Ah well. Do you think they can recognize it? I don't think any of these companies will have anything interesting to say, last ten years, or improve lives. It mostly looks like an act to me, a cargo cult where if they offer up enough "work" they'll be rewarded, disregarding any usefulness.

As far as I could tell, the article seems to be specifically about founders, not "everyone".

Personally I don't agree even for founders since I've seen too many that end up just grinding the gears without producing value - when that leads to meetings etc reducing the productivity of the entire team it's a problem. But committing to a stressful life as a founder in itself doesn't seem that bad as long as it's not propagated poorly to the team.

Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#75

I noticed there is zero mention of burnout in the article, which is exactly what every one of these founders will get if they keep pushing at the crazy pace they are going at, and highlights the problem with this kind of mentality. Burnout is a bitch, at least in my case it felt like I developed ADHD. Couldn't focus on anything, couldn't remember things that were said at meetings. I managed to pull back and now thing…

I've just turned 40, have been married for almost 20 years, and now have a 9-month-old baby. I've spent most of what would otherwise be my free time working, ever since I was 15 and bought into the American idea of entrepreneurship and became obsessed with technology. Before having the baby, I'd leave the premises maybe twice a week, forced by necessity, mostly for health reasons, and I couldn't care less most of the…

> have been married for almost 20 years, and now have a 9-month-old baby.

You're rich.

Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#76
post #74
post #3

Seems generally worse for the world if we want to force everyone to work 24/7 with no joy or interests outside of work. Ah well. Do you think they can recognize it? I don't think any of these companies will have anything interesting to say, last ten years, or improve lives. It mostly looks like an act to me, a cargo cult where if they offer up enough "work" they'll be rewarded, disregarding any usefulness.

As far as I could tell, the article seems to be specifically about founders, not "everyone". Personally I don't agree even for founders since I've seen too many that end up just grinding the gears without producing value - when that leads to meetings etc reducing the productivity of the entire team it's a problem. But committing to a stressful life as a founder in itself doesn't seem that bad as long as it's not prop…

As far as I could tell, by reading the article, it is supposed the be culture of the company. The culture of the company of course applies to people they hire. Do you understand that?

Re: AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula–No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun

#77
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like a grifter.

If you find encouraging people to stay sober, take care of themselves and enjoy life to be a grift, it seems like perhaps you've already been conned.

Lol, what. Calm down bud, do some breathwork.
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