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I bet a good number of them also think that was one of the best times of their lives.

Only after Mac got successful. If not, it won't be the best times of their lives.

Here's another bet: ask them if they want to do that again for at least 2 more times with different companies and unknown leaders, wonder if they'll take it.

Disagree, but anecdotally so. I look back with extreme fondness on a 5-month period of my life in 1998/1999 when I was working 80-hour weeks on a project that was ultimately doomed to market failure.

I learned a tremendous amount, and my team accomplished some truly great things that will forever occupy a warm spot in my memories.

Most of the people I worked with on this project agree heartily with this sentiment. You don't have to become an AAPL millionaire on a wildly successful project to make the process of creation something of great enjoyment.

Well, it also depends on your boss and your teammates. In my case, the boss wasn't exactly competent at .Net, but insisted on writing code anyway. What ended up happening is that we'd spend half of day n+1 reworking what the boss had written in the latter half of day n.

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