In Defense of the 60+ Hour Work Week

I think the previous discussion was not about turning down people working long hours. It was about turning down the idea that working 60+ hours is something heroic, something which is worthwhile to do for everyone.

Just before shipping, I realized I was making so many ridiculously obvious mistakes that I requested someone shadow all my code commits.

And then when the project was done? I was burned out so bad I would have panic attacks if I even saw code. It was nearly three months before I could program again.

Just because you love it doesn't mean you will avoid burn out and other downsides to sustained long work days.

This is what everyone else is arguing against and what the research is invalidating. You may feel you're getting more done, but are you really? Few high quality hours are much more productive than many low quality hours, especially if its work that requires your brain to actually work efficiently (anything creative, programming etc).

I refuse to believe that this tipping point is exactly 40 hours per week

Of course its not some one-size-fits-all magic number. Different people have different capacities. The same person has different capacities based on age, what they're working on, their health/mood/etc. Its also well researched that limited crunch time is more productive but that it drops very sharply over time. Its also often observed that the people don't realise they're not productive - like a lot of things, it can be hard to self-measure.

As long as your net contribution3 per hour is positive, what is the harm in working more?

You're health? You're social life? You're non-work-related interests?

I actively assess what makes me productive and what hurts me

This is good. Many people don't do this.

But the other thing is that when I was in my early twenties (I'm in my late twenties now, so not that long ago) I was absolutely able to work 30 hours straight without problem - but its not sustainable and ultimately leads to burnout. As you get older, it becomes even less sustainable and really, looking back, I would have benefited much more from normal hours and more of a life outside of study/work (I did have a reasonable one, but in hindsight I should have had even more of one). This persons statement that he has no life outside work is scary to me - he'll fuck himself up longer term.

In my opinion, the biggest problem isn't even how effective it is for one-self, but rather the expectation for others. Most people don't assess how productive they actually are (or do it badly), but will work long hours. One might think "Great! A person willing and able to work long hours! Hired!" and get significantly less quality work out of them than from someone working more "normal" hours.