The 80-hour Myth

#1

Post by wfoweoi » Wed, Aug 17, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

Re: The 80-hour Myth

#2

Post by jpeg_hero » Wed, Aug 17, 2016, 11:47 PM UTC

I've worked 80hrs per week. It does happen. The reason for the work was the company was taking off and there was a huge "pull" to do more hours. Every hour of work would produce great returns.

It's probably impossible to "push" 80hrs of work a week on a startup that's not working , or you're trying to get it off the ground.

Re: The 80-hour Myth

#3

Post by pboutros » Wed, Aug 17, 2016, 11:56 PM UTC

jpeg_hero wrote: post #2

I've worked 80hrs per week. It does happen. The reason for the work was the company was taking off and there was a huge "pull" to do more hours. Every hour of work would produce great returns. It's probably impossible to "push" 80hrs of work a week on a startup that's not working , or you're trying to get it off the ground.

Yep, came here to say this. Burnout is a thing, and it happens when people work 60+ hours a week for 6+ months (estimate). If people didn't actually work their butts off for that long and were just 'wasting' time, what is commonly known as burnout would just be sleep deprivation.

Re: The 80-hour Myth

#4

Post by andrewchambers » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 12:27 AM UTC

I think this is valid. I'm the type of person who works in bursts. Some things are conducive to this and others aren't. To be honest I feel like regular office hours are not at all, but its the best system we have when coordination needs to happen.

Re: The 80-hour Myth

#5

Post by StanislavPetrov » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 1:25 AM UTC

This might be true in tech but it certainly isn't true in a variety of other areas. Many years ago when I was just out of high school I worked (along with many others there) 80 hours a week in a restaurant and every single hour was bust-your-ass busy.

Re: The 80-hour Myth

#6

Post by Artoemius » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 5:23 AM UTC

Meanwhile, this guy worked 120 real productive hours (albeit just for one week) and he has a video to prove it: http://blog.nickwinter.net/the-120-hour-workweek-epic-coding...

Re: The 80-hour Myth

#7

Post by k__ » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 8:10 AM UTC

Artoemius wrote: post #6

Meanwhile, this guy worked 120 real productive hours (albeit just for one week) and he has a video to prove it: http://blog.nickwinter.net/the-120-hour-workweek-epic-coding...

I know a bunch of coders doing this, it's just a question of your Ritalin supply.