My "normal life" is pretty awesome. Happy hour and meals with friends and girlfriend several times a week. Exercise most days. Most weekends include at least one of: hiking, rock climbing, skiing, snowshoeing, mountain climbing; often in wilderness areas with no cell phone coverage. Movies, live music, theater. Time to read books.
It's mostly about the flexibility, not the after-work things. After working in a flexible environment for the last 10 years, and doing a little bit of 9-5 style work for the last few weeks, it really sucks.
I was about to say the same thing, but you beat me to it. I think the type of people who are most drawn to startups are the ones who go insane working the so called "normal life". I prefer to work at startups - maybe that means I'm crazy. But I prefer my brand of crazy over other people's version of normal.
You're doing it wrong?
My "normal life" is pretty awesome. Happy hour and meals with friends and girlfriend several times a week. Exercise most days. Most weekends include at least one of: hiking, rock climbing, skiing, snowshoeing, mountain climbing; often in wilderness areas with no cell phone coverage. Movies, live music, theater. Time to read books.