
According to Marissa Mayer, long hours and weekend work will lead to success - muddyrivers
https://m.signalvnoise.com/silicon-valley-arrogance-i-can-tell-you-which-startups-will-succeed-without-even-knowing-what-89aa8ea35d23#.l9nkcyqhc
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nyrulez
The article is overly narrow in its interpretation of her comment - its a
figure of speech saying that yes hard work matters. Sometimes execution and
its extent matters a lot more than the idea itself. She didn't qualify it by
saying nothing else matters. Obviously she knows its one of the factors, but
its a way of saying "Yes, hard work is really important for early stage
startups."

Not saying she is the best CEO ever, but dumbing down what she said to this
level and going on a long rant is just stupid.

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mdonahoe
A VC once told me he would drive by our office at 11pm to see if the lights
are on.

"Otherwise you're fucked"

~~~
jrgifford
Long hours and weekends are cool, as long as I'm getting a slice of the pie!
If it's just a salary, nope. If there is equity, there's a good chance I'll
toss in regular Saturday afternoons and periodical late nights. No equity? No
way.

~~~
20yrs_no_equity
I used to feel the same way, but now I realize that "a slice of the pie" isn't
real. If you're a founder and you own a share of the company, then you've got
equity. IF you've got options that are vesting (especially during the cliff
period) you're really just working for salary as the expected value is zero.
(The expectation is you are not working for a unicorn.)

~~~
drivingmenuts
The last time I worked for a startup that offered me stick, I said Thanks!,
but inside, I was thinking: just pay me a damn salary and let's not pretend
this company is my life from here on out.

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CyberDildonics
Elon Musk has said the same thing, but he built multi-billion dollar companies
instead of tanking them.

~~~
TaylorGood
Will repost an earlier comment of mine:

"I met a director from Tesla just after their unveiling of the Model X. She
said a small number of people were assigned to fully assemble / prep each
vehicle shown that night.. for roughly two weeks they worked 20 hour shifts
and slept 2 hours each night. Most teams were working on them right up until
the cars rolled on stage; there was still wet paint on one. Also, it was said
a "normal" workweek of 16 hours days isn't uncommon..

She can't wait for options to fully vest and gracefully exit. It's not for
lack of thrill, growth, etc. – just that after 3-4 years it is heavily taxing
and a pace of sanity is much desired."

~~~
bsaul
That's really something i don't understand. After 5 hours of intense work i'm
unable to code or think anything. I may be able to do many 4 hours work
periods if i'm resting inbetween, but i can't do it multiple days in a row,
otherwise i simply start slowing down and take bad decisions.

The best decisions i take are usually in the morning after a good night of
sleep, and the problems i've been struggling for the evening simply seem a lot
easier.

Even in week-end hackathons, the rookie's mistake is to not get enough sleep
in the friday evening, create bugs during saturday, and end up completely
unable to work on sunday.

Whenever i coach team, i usually tell them not to run the wrong race. If
you're running a marathon, don't run at maximum pace because you'll never make
it to the end.

~~~
56k
Same here.

Management work is different, though. More about making decisions than being
hands-on.

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tn13
It all depends on what you are working on. If you are Tesla and building that
next big car everyone is so excited to see as a short term strategy it might
work.

Working overtime on a sinking ship is rubbish. You need to rush for the
nearest exit.

Note: The comment is very very irresponsible on part of Mayer. Yahoo! anyways
is not a preferred employer these days. How is she supposed to hire the best
talent with these kind of statements ?

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thefastlane
the only legitimate reason i can think to work long hours is if i am
reasonably certain it will translate into a significant, liquid year-end
bonus.

if the only reward for meeting an insane project deadline is 'not getting
fired', then that's a shit job and it's time to find a better one.

