[meiji]

I have to agree and it happens in all areas but actually in a slightly different form usually. To take the analogy from the post, you start walking 20 miles a day and then someone says that it seems easy to do that so why not up it to 30 miles a day. Before you know it, the 40 mile day is the expectation, off days are not allowed and you fall further and further behind, eventually succumbing to burnout and the whole thing ends badly.

Software projects are the same. Nearly every company I've worked at, a senior manager says "Well if we can get these guys doing all this and they seem to be working well within their boundaries, lets push them harder". Pushing people harder can be good if they are really just slacking, but for the most part, people can't sustain more than is comfortable for long periods of time without their work or their mental state suffering. The end result is crappy code, people who leave companies or those that become non-functioning because they're burned.