| HN Mirror

I recall very little from the interviews, except a comment from one of the DabbleDB engineers. After getting through the stress questions, I asked him, "So what do you like most about Twitter?" By this point, we'd build a decent rapport, so with a nod and a wink, he said, "Well, you know, in companies like Facebook and Google, they serve you breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here at Twitter, they one serve you breakfast and lunch." I cringed inwardly. So the big selling point was that nobody worked late into the night, so we could have that chimerical work-life balance? I smiled to keep the warm vibe going. But that comment more than anything else sealed my decision. I was not going to blow the biggest career wad of my life on a company that hesitated to work past six p.m. daily.

This mode of thinking is apparently common, and yet so alien to me... When you're 80 looking back, are you really going to wish you'd put in more hours making Dorsey or Brin & Page or whoever more money? At the expense of your own life beyond a company which doesn't and never will care about you except as a replaceable factor of production?

[Dear any future employers who've bothered to de-anonymize me off Hacker News: Just kidding! I'm all about long hours and have no interests or loved ones outside of working for you!]