
In Silicon Valley, Working 9 to 5 Is for Losers - el_benhameen
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/opinion/sunday/silicon-valley-work-life-balance-.html?_r=0
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mmagin
Dupe
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15143804](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15143804)

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alecco
But the original thread got promptly kicked out of HN's homepage...

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keyle
Jeez Louise. If that's your life, have fun and consider a sea change.

Remember in the gold rush the people that got reasonably and consistently rich
were the ones selling pic axes and buckets.

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trjordan
No doubt we talk about it that way.

Not every company is like that. LinkedIn was famously 40-hour weeks in the
early days. I just started at a company that's pretty aggressively work-life
balanced. We're no doubt a startup (VC funding, high growth, the whole 9
yards), but we just don't believe that 80 hour weeks translates to the best
work. You are first and foremost your own caretaker, and it's probably bad if
you're in the office 8-6 and working at home.

Culture matters, and it's different at every company. Don't let what's said on
Twitter fool you into thinking it's the same everywhere.

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droithomme
I agree with that premise. I prefer to come in at 10 and go home at 3. People
who take more than 4 or 5 hours to get a week's work done are definitely
"losers" and surely incompetent.

Oh wait, the article is saying that "9-5 is for the weak" and recommending
longer hours? Intellectual focus of creative work can't be maintained long
term for that many hours a day. People that do that are working ineffectively,
or "losers" to use the parlance of the article author and his title.

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pmoriarty
When I finish my work early, my boss just gives me more work.

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keerthiko
Is it just me or do journalists/papers/editors based in NYC really like to
bash on Silicon Valley? Are they feeling like SV is stealing the (good and
bad) attention that used to belong to Wall Street? Roles have changed about
who is causing world-changing transactions and calling the shots about the
future of US-centric mankind (economy downturns/crashes and recoveries while
it was Wall Street, vs technological reliance and mindspace with SV)?

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mLuby
And in finance, medicine, and law…

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itg
All fields where experience is valued instead of being cast out once you hit
your 40s...

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taylodl
I've discovered 10 hours/day is the most you can handle without being
counterproductive - that is creating more problems than you're solving. You
can do half a day on Saturday - but really, you need the downtime to avoid
counter-productivity. That means you get about 55 hours per week max and even
that's not sustainable week after week after week after week. You need
downtime to avoid counter-productivity.

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polotics
42 hours week long term is my yardstick

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anaphor
Relevant: [https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/11/watch-a-vc-use-my-name-
to-s...](https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/11/watch-a-vc-use-my-name-to-sell-a-
con/)

