What you cited is China's "high tech culture". The boss will work you to death or you quit, then hire a new guy. Considering the operation cost at SF, the only way young start-up there can compete against the "biggies" with server farm size measured by acres, is to work long hours. Because their Chinese counterparts do that as well, and getting paid even less. It is not only a dangerous workplace culture, but also a sign that labor is not seen as valuable or important as capital. At least for software, it is real that some focused and smart ones can outdo the ones out of degree mills by a factor of ten. Not in terms of initial design/implementation cost, but in terms of total ownership cost. I did a lot of "software maintenance" (bug-fix) during my working years, and have seen the code from many people. The code out of the 9-9-6 tends to be barely working, and difficult to "scale up" or improve. Many people doing similar work as I did have the experience of preferring to rewrite the whole thing rather than fixing it up. Transplanting the same scenario to the hardware manufacturing side, that is the collapse of crappy products people complain about.
You are probably right about the wasted time. They would be better off with three 90 minute deep work blocks a day where they focus single mindedly on one thing at a time until it is finished before moving to the next. If they can't stay focused for 90, they can break up each 90 into three pomodoros.
Great piece. You are early calling out the performative grind culture. Yes, you need to work hard to succeed. But as a counterfactual, it's a good reminder that Eric Schmidt got the job at Google because he was the only CEO candidate who went to Burning Man and the co-founders vetted him by taking him to the festival. It's almost like connecting with people offers opportunities that sitting in your apartment coding doesn't.
great read as always! currently thinking a lot about the startup 996 expectations as someone in my early career and how I want to balance that with meeting new people/building my interests outside of work. it’s wild how many startups nowadays expect 996 especially from high ambition early career folks which is challenging
This one was awesome, Jack - and completely agree with this "throttle the flames attitude" almost innately portrayed by the startup (and consultancy) culture seen about.
From my perspective, it comes back to the acceptance that we are biology.
And we can either try and work against that fact (and fail), or work with it. I.e. by structuring our schedule around it and giving ourselves the best foot forward.
Sleep is a good example, and the bare basics of everything (basic knowledge of 'the glymphatic system' should get that across), but also exercise, diet, supplements (which, as always, gets way too much limelight for it's actual effectiveness), and relationships and fun - maybe the latter seen as an enjoyable necessity is the value needed by "young dudes" to get out of the risky, "burning candles at both ends" lifestyle.
Me quietly working hard three hours a day crushing my enemies
Few understand this.
I think humans are especially inefficient when trying to be efficient. A thing I think AI will illuminate more so than anything else.
On your "what you're interested in" section, you mention Gen-Z nihilism... I think connection is the fix. Genuine connection.
What you cited is China's "high tech culture". The boss will work you to death or you quit, then hire a new guy. Considering the operation cost at SF, the only way young start-up there can compete against the "biggies" with server farm size measured by acres, is to work long hours. Because their Chinese counterparts do that as well, and getting paid even less. It is not only a dangerous workplace culture, but also a sign that labor is not seen as valuable or important as capital. At least for software, it is real that some focused and smart ones can outdo the ones out of degree mills by a factor of ten. Not in terms of initial design/implementation cost, but in terms of total ownership cost. I did a lot of "software maintenance" (bug-fix) during my working years, and have seen the code from many people. The code out of the 9-9-6 tends to be barely working, and difficult to "scale up" or improve. Many people doing similar work as I did have the experience of preferring to rewrite the whole thing rather than fixing it up. Transplanting the same scenario to the hardware manufacturing side, that is the collapse of crappy products people complain about.
You are probably right about the wasted time. They would be better off with three 90 minute deep work blocks a day where they focus single mindedly on one thing at a time until it is finished before moving to the next. If they can't stay focused for 90, they can break up each 90 into three pomodoros.
Great piece. You are early calling out the performative grind culture. Yes, you need to work hard to succeed. But as a counterfactual, it's a good reminder that Eric Schmidt got the job at Google because he was the only CEO candidate who went to Burning Man and the co-founders vetted him by taking him to the festival. It's almost like connecting with people offers opportunities that sitting in your apartment coding doesn't.
Thanks Ted! Totally agree that in-person creates serendipity you won't get elsewhere.
Ssshhh 🤫 That's the competitive advantage for some of us!
great read as always! currently thinking a lot about the startup 996 expectations as someone in my early career and how I want to balance that with meeting new people/building my interests outside of work. it’s wild how many startups nowadays expect 996 especially from high ambition early career folks which is challenging
Yup. It's like burnout is seen more as a necessary part of the process than a risk.
The 9-9-6 schedule contradicts all the other positive health decisions the young ones are making.
Reading Nakayama's comment, this was just my thoughts as well!
This one was awesome, Jack - and completely agree with this "throttle the flames attitude" almost innately portrayed by the startup (and consultancy) culture seen about.
From my perspective, it comes back to the acceptance that we are biology.
And we can either try and work against that fact (and fail), or work with it. I.e. by structuring our schedule around it and giving ourselves the best foot forward.
Sleep is a good example, and the bare basics of everything (basic knowledge of 'the glymphatic system' should get that across), but also exercise, diet, supplements (which, as always, gets way too much limelight for it's actual effectiveness), and relationships and fun - maybe the latter seen as an enjoyable necessity is the value needed by "young dudes" to get out of the risky, "burning candles at both ends" lifestyle.
Let me know your thoughts :)