[thetechlead]

996 sounds like a paradise. We startup founders work 24/7. We are either working or thinking about work related stuff when not sleeping. Not that we don't know work-life balance is good for health, but you just can't stop dwelling on it if you have a devotion.

[warent]

Unless you're trying to start, say, a space flight business or a car company, working absurd hours is just stroking ourselves to feel special about the supposedly coveted "startup founder" persona. It's a really boring, old meme at this point. I'm a "startup founder" with a profitable SaaS business, but I also have unrelated hobbies and friends outside of that bubble.

[thetechlead]

Not that I don't have hobbies and friends. I routinely take week long beach vocation to make myself physically isolated from work. Just can't stop thinking about it daily and it's a hellof joy returning to my cubicle start working.

[aaronbrethorst]

that's not healthy. find a hobby, sleep enough, remember to eat. you get to work or build plenty of companies, but you only get one life.

[teknologist]

As a startup founder you're sitting on a nice pile of equity. That's why you are sacrificing more of your life for success. Chinese workers at Alibaba for example mostly do not have any equity at all.

[reachtarunhere]

Because you are going to make the money and reward. Only the most desperate idiots would work that hard for someone else's dream.