Ask HN: Can you code more than 40 hours/wk?

I code 12 hours a day (3 4h sessions). But I dont have a traditional schedule because dont sleep. I only nap. If I did sleep there is no way I could do it.

Are you relatively young? Don't burn yourself out.

If I can manage 10 hours per week, I consider the week highly successful.

People will tell you things ...

This is a topic that:

a) people really like to brag about,

b) it's hard to separate "hanging around" hours from really productive hours,

c) even if you can distinguish those, it's a major pain to accurately track them (do not trust what anybody says just from remembering).

Do not worry to much about raw hours numbers. Focus more on quality of these hours.

In my experience, the difference in productivity / results achieved between "good" and "bad" hours can be staggering. Well rested me can easily outcode several tired overworked stressed mes :).

Forcing yourself heroically to work more when you already can't can be very counterproductive (game industry notorious for permanent crunch times sometimes does self-reflection [1][2]).

Working many forced hours can make sense when you have some external situation where additional benefits of getting something done by deadline outweigh loss of productivity. But even there, you are only borrowing it from your future self.

Yes, I had situations where hunkered down and produced magnificent amount of results working crazy hours every day, but at the end I got literally sick and was unable to do any intellectual work for quite some time afterwards.

[1] http://archives.igda.org/articles/erobinson_crunch.php

[2] http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres...

out of curiosity, how do you count 80-100 hours a week? Do you keep timesheets?

100 hours is 14 hours a day, every day.

First, I commend your self awareness. That right there is the biggest battle for me honestly. You should pay attention to your mind and body, and make sure you are letting yourself recharge. I'm reminded of a recent article on here about how Germans have the same productivity as Americans with fewer weekly hours and a lot more vacation. The American culture values putting in the hours more than it does productivity, and it's dreadfully easy to fall into the trap.

As to the answer to your question, I think it varies a great deal, but I don't think you'll ever get an honest answer based on any kind of data from silicon valley, statistical or otherwise. The problem is that productivity is too amorphous, and there's really no hope of getting an honest appraisal from actual engineers because they're just as likely to fooling themselves as to provide factual data. I know I've had some amazing 100 hour weeks where mountains were moved, but it's really hard to be sure that I wouldn't have gotten twice as much done in two 30 hour weeks...

Also apropos, I've currently been on a death march for the past three months. At this point I'm still pulling 80 hour weeks, but I'm so worn down now that I'm sure I'm not getting anything more done than I would in a normal 40-hour week. It's sort of a make or break moment for the company I've spent the last 3 years building, so it's worth it this time, but it's also the sort of experience that highlights the dangers of too much work. My body mind and body are down far beyond what I could achieve on a personal project, or some artificial scenario like you are given in college. It's definitely not a lifestyle that I plan to continue, and I would caution anyone against living this way. It's better not to burn yourself out, and always keep something in reserve for when you really need it.