[inapis]

I find 12 hours a day to be too much. And 6 days a week is throwing the mental health of a person off a cliff.

I’ve frequently found, personally and observing others, that productivity drops after 6h of continuous work especially if it forces you to think a lot (which is pretty much always in software - you still need to apply your brain to connect the plumbing between APIs)

Anything after 6h should either be menial work, cleanup or something else. I’ve found it is usually better to postpone any intense work to the next day. As a solo founder who tried to keep up 12h+ days, I’ve had the same amount of productivity by shutting down my day after 7h. You usually end up stretching things into hours for what would take a couple of minutes with a fresh brain.

[zorked]

People in workspaces with crazy work hours pad the remaining hours with meetings, email, going from here to there and back here.

Humans only work so many hours a day. Outlier humans who can work more won't waste their talent/superpower at an employer where their extra time isn't compensated.

[stkdump]

I have to say (as a person currently on a 25-30 hour work week), that I often times find meetings to be the most exhausting part of my job, especially when I am very engaged in them. Coding is like meditation compared to that (thought I couldn't dream of doing it more than 50 hours per week for more than a week or two).

[bigred100]

Agree. The best way to work tons of hours is to spend tons of time on low-effort things that can be presented as difficult or important in meetings.

[maxheadroom]

>Outlier humans who can work more won't waste their talent/superpower at an employer where their extra time isn't compensated.

Yes and no. Some might compromise the hourly rates for salary, if it comes with fringe benefits - say, having an FAANG on your resume, for example.

[atorodius]

I fully agree! Have found exactly the same thing for me, i.e., I can do about 6h of mentally consuming things a day.

[matwood]

I can do more if I'm allowed to make my own schedule. Throw a couple hour workout + lunch in the middle of the day and I can go back to mentally consuming work. Too few companies recognize that they are shooting themselves in the foot with the strict 9-5 or whatever hours.