The down side is that I'm exhausted all the time. We don't interact much outside of reviewing PRs, questions and help regarding our domains on the project. This can be a lonely experience during the COVID WFH days. Its a difficult pace to sustain week after a week with no real days to work on personal projects. At the end of the day I'm disgusted by screens, terminals and editors. That is not a good sign.
The upside, I'm outputting the most code in my career (I came from enterprise/IGO work). I'm learning how to perform at a high-pace. There is a lot of focus on preparation: eating right, sleeping/resting correctly and spending time off-computer time breaking down problems I need to solve during my next 'shift' into sizeable, ordered chunks. All done so I can make my 8 hours productive the next day.
Committing, merging and deploying at a rapid rate feels good but I become more and more like a factory worker each week.