I just think talking yourself out of working extra hours when you waste a lot of those extra hours is just self deception.
Why does "wasting time" matter when there's a 100% guarantee that we're all going to die and that the universe is going to come to an end?
Fuck it. I say: Do whatever is necessary for you to lead the life you're happy leading and then... well... lead that life.
If someone is happy doing the bare minimum necessary to spend the rest of his/her time stuffing his/her face with junk food and pigging-out on reality TV, then who are you to call that time "wasted"?
The universe is going down the toilet and, when it does, there will be nobody around to think "Hmmm... Calhan Whatshisface should have spent his time learning the @$$32 JS framework instead of watching Real Fartfaces of Silver Spring".
If working gets you off, then that's fine, but please step off your high horse and stop expecting everyone else to want to spend their life slobbing the proverbial knob of ProductiveWork™.
It isn't self deception. Just like I know that I'm less productive at complex problems at 3am, I'm less productive if I'm doing it for 11 hours a day instead of 8.
You can become mentally exhausted to the point your work output is worthless because you make stupid mistakes that take longer to QA.
The cost of me making a mistake for 8 minutes? ~$10,000. The cost of me being properly rested, properly QAing things, etc. is not as expensive as the damage of a single mistake a year.
You are instead addressing any and all programmers, and are assuming they all want what you want. I hope you realize how off-putting this is to the people who are just fine with working in a "safe" job and chipping away at their 401k and playing with their kids/TVs/Xbox for 15 hours a week.
The thesis of the article is basically:
1. You're wrong to be happy with your non-entreprenuereal career
2. You're wrong if you aren't trying really hard to become an entrepreneur
This is a very dickish piece.