Startups: Live longer, don't burnout | Hacker News Reader

Startups: Live longer, don't burnout

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11 pointsgdltec8 comments

Balance in your life is a cool thing, still, there is a question where is balance? Is it 1 hour of "decompression" every day? 2 hours? a weekend? what if you're still more effective with ALMOST no decompression at all? How long can you endure?

Where is the point of "balance" for you?

I can't speak for him, but there's no single point for me. I can tell when I've spent a week being 'too productive'. Mainly because the next week will be killer on me. Energy levels will be down, I'll be on edge about everything, etc.

isnt't it all about glucose levels?

http://finalmile.in/show_article.php?aid=6

Personally, there is not an specific point of balance for me. Balancing my life and work is something that I keep tweaking constantly, it is highly dependable in the project and my own stress levels towards the project.

In the end, if people at least acknowledge that they are experiencing stress or even a burnout and know that they need to do something about it, they will be ahead of most...

I originally read the headline (and the first few paragraphs) as "[keep your startup] live longer, don't burnout [and shut it down prematurely]"

Which is an article I'd like to read.

Good advice that I need to heed.

But what about if first-to-market is the difference between success and failure? What if you really really need to put in 60 hour weeks for the next 1/2 year or else your startup is going to die?

Then there's a good chance you will burn out. You have to balance the risk of burnout with the risk of failure. It comes down to how much you value your daily happiness vs future happiness.

Personally, my father valued his future happiness more and worked himself half to death until retirement. At which point, he had money, but all the rest of his plans fell apart. Now, I can't say he's happier than when he was working.

I've gone the other direction. My work is fun, my rest is fun, my fun is fun. I make decent money, but I'll never be as important to a company as my dad was. And he was that important to quite a few companies. Literally saving them from bankruptcy.

A part of me wants those kind of tales to tell when I'm old, and the money that goes along with it... But I know better than to give up my short and medium term happiness to do it.

But that's different. He's waiting until retirement. I'm not planning to wait that long - that's just silly. I'm saying 2 years of delayed gratification at most.

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