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Comment by _yosefk | Hacker News Reader

For someone with no responsibilities except work, 70 hour weeks are sustainable (did it for 3 years, not to be recommended, but no burnout.) People report way larger numbers of hours though and probably have to handle more than just their work; I don't know where things start to break down, they ought to somewhere.

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I think you need an additional component: no other desires except work. Many of us don't have jobs that fully satisfy (or let's be honest, even barely satisfy, since even 50% satisfaction would be nice and tolerable at some places) our minds, and once the thought patterns of "I can't wait for the day to be over so that I can X" start, they're hard to stop. Then you kind of need monk-like discipline to continually deny yourself your greater desires over the timespan of years if you don't want to go crazy / suffer burnout.

> For someone with no responsibilities except work, 70 hour weeks are sustainable (did it for 3 years, not to be recommended, but no burnout.)

Folks in the military do 84-hour work weeks when deployed (twelve on/twelve off — and really, with 30-60 minutes of handover time factored in it works out to 91-98 hours/week), and are deployed for up to a year. It's brutal, but it is sustainable. Having no other responsibilities to think of probably helps; I've no idea how distracting modern communications technology is to folks with families.

Some people thrive in that sort of an environment.

I'd sure as hell would never want to work with them.

"no responsibilities except work"

I assume this also means the responsibility to keep one's health in check is sacrificed for additional workload?

I can't imagine keeping up an exercise routine working that many hours.

If you assume a 7 day work week, it's less crazy from an hours-in-the-day perspective, but more crazy from a no-recover-time perspective. I kind of assume the hours a week number is somewhat inclusive of non-specific work items. It may include a lunch where you are on the computer but not specifically working, such as watching a few short videos, and time spent on HN and other social/information resources, which may be somewhat relaxing.

Not everyone means the same thing when they say something like "15 hour work day". That said, I think short busts of non work specific activity without changing your surrounding is no substitute for changing your surroundings and context enough to switch gears for a while. A trip to the local coffee house with coworkers where you still discuss work is a poor substitute for an extra 15-30 minutes at the end of the day where get out and do something entirely different.

I don't think it's that crazy, it's five 12 hour days and then 10 hours over the weekend. It's a lot of work, but without kids and other responsibilities it's doable. 70 hours of working is usually only 40-50 of real programming / hardcore thinking, there's always internet surfing, lunch, chit chat, etc. mingled in.

From my own experience I think it's ultimately unhealthy to justify working long hours with "internet surfing, lunch, chit chat, etc. mingled in." While it's easy to rationalize staying late thinking "yeah, but I took a long lunch, chatted with so-and-so, ..." at the end of the day you have that much less downtime away from work. I find I am much happier when I can keep those distractions to a minimum, then force myself to go home. I get more done outside of work and sleep better, resulting in being more focused and productive when I am at work. Allowing work and the rest of my life to blend together both makes me less productive at work and results in having less time for everything else.

It's sustainable from the perspective of not dropping dead.

But what happens to your health? How can you exercise and eat healthily? Go for a run on your only day / half day off?

Your future self will be angry at your past self when it sees what you've done.

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