
20 Years of Crunch Take Their Toll on a Game Developer - miobrien
https://steamed.kotaku.com/he-thought-he-was-done-with-80-hour-workweeks-then-he-1825728038
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argimenes
The word 'crunch' is used so frequently in the article that the repetition
becomes strangely hypnotic and the word becomes disassociated from meaning.
Occassionally using 'overtime' instead might have reduced this effect ... :-)

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jjoonathan
'Overtime' is paid, crunch is not.

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montyf
That's not true at all. Overtime can most definitely be unpaid, and usually
is.

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jjoonathan
By the legal definition, sure, but in common usage the word "overtime" is
usually qualified as "unpaid overtime" if that's the case.

Invoking the word "overtime" to mean "unpaid overtime," especially by young
team-members, typically results in uncomfortable coughs, silence, and
expectation setting from managers / senior members of the team, none of which
would be necessary if, like the word "crunch," the unqualified word carried no
connotation of payment. I've seen this happen many times in a number of
settings so I'm pretty sure it's not just a regional quirk. Connotations are
important.

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hug
No one I know specifies overtime as unpaid or paid. It is simply time that is
worked over the amount normally worked, and may be paid or not.

Of my friends, I know if some of them say they worked overtime they mean
unpaid, and I know if some of them say they worked overtime they're getting a
fat paycheque.

~~~
Nomentatus
Legal reference? (This is a matter of law, re engineer's compensation.)

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jiggliemon
This article felt more like an ad for his game, than it did a warning about
"crunch."

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timavr
This is a little misleading title.

He didn’t crunch for 20 years, but point still valid.

Just wondering how much crunch there in game dev vs startup vs FB/Goog/etc.

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stevenwoo
I worked 80 hours a week at a startup for about six months where we weren't
sure we were getting paid unless we shipped to customers so we had to get
things done but I was the only programmer at that time. I worked 12 months in
70+ hours a week crunch on one game project (I found documentation here
[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131533/postmortem_bli...](https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131533/postmortem_blizzards_diablo_ii.php))
- remember the motivation speech was we had to finish or we were all getting
fired but I never felt like it was ever as hard as the startup - it was a
larger team effort so I was hardly ever the one thing holding up progress.
YMMV.

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raarts
> six months where we weren’t sure we were getting paid unless we shipped

Don't do this unless you own significant shares

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stevenwoo
Yes, great advice, don't kill yourself unless you have skin in the game.

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wolco
Wondering how he can blame this crunch time for all of these ailments. Maybe
he ignored everything but why does his foot hurt and go out? Back related?

~~~
munificent
_> Maybe he ignored everything but why does his foot hurt and go out? Back
related?_

Yeah, being sedentary for long periods of time can mess up your back, which
can in turn cause peripheral neuropathy because all of your nerves go through
the spine too.

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jarsin
I'd get a Captain Crunch tattoo if I were this guy.

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retrac98
People have nobody to blame but themselves for working crazy hours, in an in-
demand role.

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all_blue_chucks
Engineering talent is in such high demand, the only reason anyone would work a
death march is masochism. I mean, we get paid 5x the average US salary. We
make enough to retire in our thirties. Working stupid hours in this
environment is a choice.

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mulmen
Engineers are retiring in their 30s? I can honestly say that I have never met
a person that did this. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. What's the secret?

e: engineers, not people in general.

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mendelk
[https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/)
(See sidebar for lots of links)

30s is a bit aggressive, tho ;)

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mulmen
The comment I replied to made it sound like engineers are commonly retiring in
their 30s. I have never seen an example of that happening personally.

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jogjayr
[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/)

It's not common but the math behind it is solid. You just have to not live
like most other people do.

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milesvp
Simply put, if you save half of your take home, your passive income will
approach your living expenses in roughly 10-15 years. And that even with a
conservative draw of 3%, you can start to live off that money without touching
your principle. There are a lot of assumptions about inflation and not getting
stuck in a long bear market, but it's still a fairly solid way to look at how
our spending keeps us tied to our work. The really big takeaway from MMM (who
lately has been seeming more and more out of touch sadly), is that every
dollar you remove from your budget works double, in that it helps you grow
savings, but also decreases the amount of costs interest you need to live on.

Compound interest is something that more people should really understand.

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moneytide1
It makes sense. We spend our days making sure the machines are running
properly enough to keep us entertained, fed, or traveling. The clerical
lifestyle is phasing out our bodies.

Use it or lose it.

