Don't worry, the next bullet point clearly states they "separated work from personal life."
More seriously, that's the kind of thing which does creep in to companies. They have a culture already. It's a long hours culture. You may or may not think that's a bad thing, but it's there. It's quite hard to lose as well. People come in, they can't work less than the people already there, so they jump in to it. Soon people that only work 11 hour days are regarded as slackers. Nip it in the bud. It can't work forever, and it'll get harder to change.
what rich meant was that unlike other companies, where social & work bleed together (people hang at the office 7 days a week, 15 hours a day but aren't always working) - we come in, we jam all day, we go home. and we take weekends off.
Past a certain amount of time, you're spinning your wheels, doing bad work you'll have to clean up later, and pushing yourself towards an early burn-out.
It's unhealthy, non-sustainable, a bad cultural precedent.
If there's no other choice, then do it -- we all have. But don't be too proud of it; it's not something you want engrained in your culture.
It's nowhere near the hours worked by a first year analyst at an ibank, or by a first year associate at a law firm.
Bill is not saying we are particularly proud of how much we work, just that we aren't apologizing for it. Especially when we are talking about the first 5 employees in the company.
Trust me, I don't want to be working 12 hour days a year from now, but it's what the company requires right now. I enjoy coming to work every day and working on something I love. I'd much rather do that for 12 hours a day, than watch the clock for 8.
As far as I can tell the hours are completely tangential to the main topic of the post. If that one line was removed, suddenly the main thrust of the comments here would have been totally different. Let's not turn into a community that focuses on soundbites, please. We can be better than that.
The way threads work, if you feel like discussing some other aspect of the article then you can go right ahead and start another top-level thread about it.
For me, the revelation that they routinely work twelve-and-a-half-hour days, every day, is the most important part of this "company culture" post. It's the one that, if I were considering applying for a job at this company, decide that there is absolutely no fricking way I wanted to work at this company.