A connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity

I work in AI research in the Bay Area where hustle culture is strong. OpenAI and hot startups have normalised working long hours and taking few vacations.

Hustle is great if you have a well defined, measurable objective. With such an aim it is easy to keep track of your progress over time and maximize your work.

But when you want to do research, design great composible systems, be creative, write good code, it is better to do it casually. With such endeavors the goal is not well defined or measurable. Pressure to be productive or have demonstrable results often leads to myopic thinking, local minima, unsustainable designs, technical debt and spaghetti code.

I haven't quite been able to capture why there exist these two modes. The moment I try to talk about the creative type of work my colleagues look at me like I'm making excuses or that I'm a slacker.

Re: A connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity

#8

Post by wruza » Sat, Dec 09, 2023, 9:35 AM UTC

sc0rpil wrote: post #5

[flagged]

Many of us rarely follows links.

Re: A connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity

#9

Post by Racing0461 » Sat, Dec 09, 2023, 9:35 AM UTC

jimsimmons wrote: post #7

I work in AI research in the Bay Area where hustle culture is strong. OpenAI and hot startups have normalised working long hours and taking few vacations. Hustle is great if you have a well defined, measurable objective. With such an aim it is easy to keep track of your progress over time and maximize your work. But when you want to do research, design great composible systems, be creative, write good code, it is bet…

> Hustle is great if you have a well defined, measurable objective

Hustle is great if you are going to make 8 figures if the startup you work at ipos. Your roi doesn't really change at big companies. might even be negative in the cases where they freeze raises (msft and others).

Re: A connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity

#10

Post by baz00 » Sat, Dec 09, 2023, 9:35 AM UTC

This aligns with my findings over the years. The more over invested I am in something the quicker productivity grinds to a halt. Mostly because I enthusiastically cornered myself and end up creating more problems than I’m solving.

Apathetic lazy me scoots on past workaholic me fairly easily on because it’s afraid of making itself busy later by accident.