[skohan]

Two questions would be: 1) do they actually work 12 hours a day, or have they found a way to appear to do so? and 2) how long have they done this for? When I was at my first startup, I had periods of 16 hour days, but after a few years of this I would not go back.

[theshrike79]

Exactly.

There's a huge difference between being at work 12 hours a day and actually doing something productive with that time.

Japan is an excellent example of this, in their office culture you never leave before the boss does and try to be at the office before them. People spend 12+ hours at work and don't produce more than other people who work sensible hours.

Coronavirus and remote works might be a savior for that culture.

[machinelabo]

I wondered the same but their work output is evident. I can see the commit history and their responsiveness to issues.

Not saying anything about whether this is a good idea or not. Just saying that I know people like this that I used to be skeptical about before.