[mirko22]

I know this is not bery popular point of view on HN but:

Burn out? You are in your mid 20ies, if you can’t put in long hours and hard work now you won’t be able to do it later in life trust me.

It really comes down to how industrious and conscientious you are rather then how smart and happy you are.

If you’re a hard worker and know your job well you will make it on any job, even the ones with shitty management. If the managers are unbearable leave - you are lucky to be in the industry where if you’re any good you can land a job in a day. Most people don’t have this luxury, work very long hours in completely shitty jobs (think cleaning toilets) and never burn out and lead happy life.

It’s basically down to your personality and what you value in life, nobody else but you can really tell you what’s best for you.

[throwaway234287]

> It really comes down to how industrious and conscientious you are rather then how smart and happy you are.

I get it that industriousness and conscientiousness are important, but I disagree that "it" (whatever "it" is) comes down to those rather than being happy.

(I also disagree that being smart or working smart is less important, although it's true that just being smart without any of the former two doesn't allow one to accomplish much. Of course if you value the idea of being busy and doing a lot as an end in itself, that's another story.)

If your economical circumstances, the surrounding society or other realities dictate that you have to be particularly industrious in order to survive and to meet your basic needs, wants and goals, it makes sense to have that as your central value. But if you're already getting what you need, why on Earth would industriousness rule over happiness or satisfaction?

I guess this is pretty much a matter of values, and if you get that satisfaction from being and feeling industrious, that kind of answers the question. But if you don't, it doesn't make much sense -- in that case the former is just a means to the end.

> Most people don’t have this luxury, work very long hours in completely shitty jobs (think cleaning toilets) and never burn out and lead happy life.

Well, you can kind of toil away in a non-thinking job, and if it suits your personality, that's fine. It can still be exhausting particularly if you need to do it in a hurry, but I wouldn't expect you to burn out if you can keep doing pretty much the same thing every day and it suits you.

However, I think a lot of people on HN are the kinds of people who get satisfaction from more than just getting their basic job done, and the ability to be creative and to maintain the kinds of cognitive abilities required e.g. for tech jobs does actually require a balance, at least for most people.

But yeah, it's a matter of values in a sense I guess. Doing what fits your values gives satisfaction.

[mirko22]

Like i said, not very popular:)

Question is why is everyone so obsessed with work life balance?

I come from 3rd world country and I never heard of that concept before I moved to some European countries.

I used to work anywhere from 6-16 hours a day and even night, I never complained and always did my job as best as I could, so not sure why is that viewed as horrible, and I feel the only reason people think about this is cos it’s easy to find a job in this profession, I don’t see people working in Mcdonalds or stock traders talking about it.

I’m sorry if you don’t share that point of view.

[andscoop]

No need to be sorry. I don't think many here will be envious of your point of view.

As for why work life balance is seen as something to be strived for, there might be several reasons.

Most workers here are thought workers, which means productivity is incredibly hard to measure. Along with this, the general consensus seems to be that we have limited number of hours of true productivity per day with this sort of work. (Idk if the science is there to back it up, but it is the consensus). So by this logic working 70 hour weeks has a cost.

Another reason is that an hour at work takes an hour from society as a whole. Another hour at work is an hour not being a husband, not raising kids, not spending money at bars with friends, not shopping (to the benfit of the economy) not cooking or other hobbies which develop well rounded citizens.

Also maybe to the larger point, why? Why give your life (50hpw+ consistently) to an employer if it's not needed and you don't love it? There is a whole world out there and you already give an majority size chunk of you life to work and sleep, what are you going to do with the rest?