Hacker News Reader

Thanks for your reply!

8 hours seems like quite a bit to me. I feel like I would most likely burnout much too quickly at that rate to last even a couple of months. I was unable to complete my college degree for this reason and dropped out.

That sounds interesting though. When you say you're allowed to be relatively unmotivated, does that correspond to being able to spend a lot of those "work hours" however you like without penalty?

View on HN

Depends on the company. I had a friend who spent most of his time at work not doing any work, but for example browsing catalogs and fixing his new apartment (while financing that with his salary). Although after a year or two he started to hate it and quit, changed to something that actually requires his attention, as I think he was afraid he's losing skill this way.

I'd say anything between ~30% and ~70% "time-weighted attention" required within those 8 hours a day doesn't surprise me. And when I say "required" I mean if you put in less you'll be eventually fired.

Edit: this is not to say that working hard doesn't pay off, it certainly does if the company is set up properly (and many are). I'm taking about bare minimums here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com