[btrombley]

As articles like this attest, there is a deep resentment on HN with the idea that success requires long hours and slavish commitment to work. But then every article about a successful company bolsters the sense that success requires exactly that kind of sacrifice. As Michael Bloomberg put it in his autobiography, Bloomberg succeeded "because we worked harder."

It's nice to read about the exception like 37Signals, but Apple, Google, Facebook, Dropbox, etc. are not known as places where work-life balance is a priority (and they have done more than anyone technologically to make work ubiquitous). Those mega-successful companies are also the entire reason the VC model (including YC) works, which can be an uncomfortable truth if you work at a venture-backed startup.

Worker productivity has been steadily rising over the last half century, and yet people aren't working less, as originally predicted. You can view that as an indictment of American consumer culture, or you can view it as evidence that we're motivated by something else.

Just my observations.

[x0x0]

Perhaps it's evidence that -- at least at many companies I've worked for -- time in office is used as a proxy for productivity. And in some it matters more!