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Comment by rdouble | Hacker News Reader

Long hours are not always because of a broken process, or death march deadlines.

Many times when I have worked long hours, it was because I was really into the problem I was trying to solve, and didn't want to quit.

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Same here. Any time you are working a difficult problem, especially one that is difficult because of its complexity, you have to keep a lot of context in your head. In that situation, keep going as long as you can and are still making progress. This is the same problem, but in a more extreme context, as the "getting back on track" problem caused by interruptions that was discussed in Peopleware, and frequently since.

There was a discussion program on radio here in Finland (Eftersnack on YLE Vega) where they talked about heavy jobs and one job, along the other works job that contained physical challenge, was the job as a software engineer. They compared it to playing chess all day long; "the next move is yours and you cannot get it out of your head, you think about the move (read problem in your code/application) all day and night long". Although they went a little bit over the top with the comparison they still hit the nail.

Yes, precisely. This only applies if you were forced to work the long hours, as opposed to doing it because you felt like it.

Which is why I don't like the 9-5 nonsense either. Also programming isn't just done at the computer. When I am working on a problem, I am working on it at lunch, on the bus, on my cycle, sitting out side starring into space, etc. Left to my own devices I would "work" infront of my work pc 60 hours one week 5-10 the next 40 the next two. Being forced to be in the office a set time is no good for anyone in my position.

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