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Comment by Spooky23 | Hacker News Reader

I’m sure. It’s pretty obvious. If you have a choice in the matter, early start gives you superpowers and is evidence of discipline.

I typically start work at 7:30. I have about 2-2.5 hours of actual, mostly undisturbed productivity. Early in my career my managers thought I was a genius because I knew everything. I did - because I read stuff.

Nowadays I’m a boss guy, and I’m fully up to speed and ready to go at my 9:15 standup, and half my colleagues are running behind to make the meeting.

Note that I’m not a “morning person”. I hate waking up at 5:30. But my kids need to get to school, my wife tends to start early and I don’t see a point in lounging around. People would be better off focusing on taking care of themselves instead of trying to make laziness some sort of protected medical condition.

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I don't think being a morning person has much to do with loving/hating to wake up early. It's more about how easy it's for you to get enough sleep if you have to wake up early every morning.

I'm definitely not a morning person, but I love waking up early (ideally a bit before sunrise). Unfortunately my circadian rhythm is always creeping forward. Whenever there is something special (like a trip across multiple time zones) that allows me to reset the rhythm, I get a couple of weeks of early mornings. But eventually I'm back at balancing between sleeping late and not getting enough sleep, because I fall asleep a little bit later every night.

That "taking care of themselves" sounds much like "listening to your body" as a cure to obesity. Taking care of themselves is precisely what makes some people sleep late.

"Starting early shows discipline" is exactly as valid as "staying late shows dedication", i.e. not at all.

I don't follow, whatever you do from 7:30-9:30 I used to do just as well from 22:00-24:00. Family obligations unfortunately made splitting the work day in half like this very hard so I now start earlier, feel tired all day and am much less productive.

I'm just not a morning person, before 9:00 I just feel miserable. It doesn't matter if it is work, exercise, reading or studying - nothing feels right.

> and is evidence of discipline.

No it’s not. It’s evidence of a morning person.

"I do what works for me and people who can't are undisciplined" is exactly the kind of take that has people saying the system is rigged.

"People would be better off focusing on taking care of themselves," well, I would say that getting enough sleep and not caring about when exactly others start their day could be a part of that.

Getting sufficient, quality sleep is taking care of yourself.

This is arbitrary. One can also prepare for the next day by working late the night before, start working later in the morning, and be just as fully up to speed and ready to go at 9:15. Standup could also just as easily be at 11:15. Why is your way superior?

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