[alwa]

If anyone tried to demand that I work that way, I’d say absolutely not.

But when I sink my teeth into something interesting and important (to me) for a few weeks’ or months’ nonstop sprint, I’d say no to anyone trying to rein me in, too!

Speaking only for myself, I can recognize those kinds of projects as they first start to make my mind twitch. I know ahead of time that I’ll have no gas left the tank by the end, and I plan accordingly.

Luckily I’ve found a community who relate to the world and each other that way too. Often those projects aren’t materially rewarding, but the few that are (combined with very modest material needs) sustain the others.

[ishita159]

I think senior folks at OpenAI realized this is not sustainable and hence took the "wellness week".

[bradyriddle]

I'd be curious to know about this community. Is this a formal group or just the people that you've collected throughout your life?

[alwa]

The latter. I mean, I feel like a disproportionate number of folks who hang around here have that kind of disposition.

That just turns out to be the kind of person who likes to be around me, and I around them. It’s something I wish I had been more deliberate about cultivating earlier in my life, but not the sort of thing I regret.

In my case that’s a lot of artists/writers/hackers, a fair number of clergy, and people working in service to others. People quietly doing cool stuff in boring or difficult places… people whose all-out sprints result in ambiguity or failure at least as often as they do success. Very few rich people, very few who seek recognition.

The flip side is that neither I nor my social circles are all that good at consistency—but we all kind of expect and tolerate that about each other. And there’s lots of “normal” stuff I’m not part of, which I probably could have been if I had tried. I don’t know what that means to the business-minded people around here, but I imagine it includes things like corporate and nonprofit boards, attending sports events in stadia, whatever golf people do, retail politics, Society Clubs For Respectable People, “Summering,” owning rich people stuff like a house or a car—which is fine with me!

More than enough is too much :)

[ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7]

I think any reasonable manager would appreciate that sort of interest in a project and would support it, not demand it.

[alwa]

And, at least if I'm your manager, zealously defend the sanctity of your recovery time afterward.

[fsckboy]

I don't need recovery time afterward (apart from sleep), but when I'm surrounded by people who do I want some equivalent compensation, not because I feel I need it, but because I feel they are slackers (not saying they are objectively slackers, just saying that's how it feels to me). many compromises need to be made when sprinting all out, and in the aftermath what is restorative to me is cleaning up the technical debt while it's fresh in my mind and I can't understand that other people don't want to do the same thing.