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Comment by jamesbritt | Hacker News Reader

"the ninety hour workweek is the talking parrot"

Sweet metaphor. Thanks.

I would love to see some counter-examples where 90 hour weeks actually do power superior performance: investment banking; Mahalo.com; etc.

90 hour workweeks come with an undocumented feature, the < 50 years old heart attack.

For a little while, say a couple of weeks it's ok to push yourself like that it if it is actual work, and something you do not enjoy.

If your work is play to you you might get away with it. But anybody that pushes themselves like that is going to find out a few things:

  - there is a price

  - the price includes an interest 

  - your 90 hour workweek is on a per-hour basis not as
    productive as a 50 hour workweek would be

Also, just like in computers, works smarter, not harder.

And ask yourself if you can effciently code, write, whatever for 90 hours per week?

Then measure your effciency and act accordingly.

A lot of traders work long hours to feel better about themselves. Usually the ones who consistently stay late are either using inappropriate technology or are compensating for some other inadequacy. They also tend to have the worst performance in the end and ultimately leave (not always voluntarily).

I don't think either of those are examples of superior performance.

I would love to see some counter-examples where 90 hour weeks actually do power superior performance: investment banking

I work at the second largest investment bank in the world and have not seen anyone work 90 hour weeks. The traders may work 7am-6pm, but that's only 55 hours. Everyone else works somewhere around 40 hours.

All the people I know who work in M&A say that 90-hour work weeks are common.

It probably depends on where you work. Big companies can hire a lot of people. Small companies can't. But they're both competing in the same market.

Agreed they work a lot of crazy weeks, but it is not variable. When deals are getting close and it is crunch time, hours get crazy.

My friend says that when he hires, his first thought to himself is "Can we work with this guy at 2am with a deadline tomorrow?".

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