Have a Life Outside of Your Startup | Hacker News Reader

Have a Life Outside of Your Startup

gobignetwork.com

5 pointstransburgh11 comments

Most of the posts on this site are merely uselessly vague, but this one is actually false.

I realize it would sound a lot nicer if I said that founders should strive to have a balanced life. After all, how can an unbalanced life be good? And yet it is probably not a coincidence that so many successful startup founders blow off everything else while they're working on the company.

The one non-work activity I think is a net win for founders is exercising. But the reason it's a net win is that it helps you to work harder.

I smell MBA's everytime I see that gobig site. They're like cops pretending to be drug dealers. The lingo is all wrong and they're a little too eager...

Even at MIT I never met anyone who could work productively beyond 55-60 hours a week for extended periods. Beyond 60 hours a week, one is merely displacing true friends with coworkers for many social activities, such as going out for dinner, coffee or discussing the news.

There is a balance that is lost - no TV; random, lazy Saturday afternoons are a luxury; spontaneous get togethers with friends are no longer so practical. But friends and other activities don't have to be sacrificed, merely structured into one's routine.

Exercising is the only non-work activity which helps people work harder? Maybe for you -- not for me. I play violin and go to symphony concerts; that keeps me calm enough that I can think through what I'm doing rather than rushing off and going nowhere fast.

I step away from the computer and take a hike in nature to refresh my perspective daily. Unbalance sounds like more like how to handle an obsession. Finding one's own balance with their work in the positive is passion.

I don't think it's possible to find "balance" but it is a good idea to take a little time away... or else you end up with tunnel vision.

How is it "wrong?"

I'm surprised to hear you of all people have such a strong opinion against what I've written.

I certainly can't speak to pg's views about your content at large; I'm confident that I can provide an accurate representation of why he would disagree with this article.

Quote from one of his essays - "My final test may be the most restrictive. Do you actually want to start a startup? What it amounts to, economically, is compressing your working life into the smallest possible space. Instead of working at an ordinary rate for 40 years, you work like hell for four."

I happen to agree with him 100%.

I'm just trying to figure out where anyone suggested I was talking about "balance". I was saying that from time to time you need to unplug in order to get re-charged to work harder.

Did you see the part that said I worked for 3 years without seeing my friends or family? I'm working on my 10th startup in 13 years. I'm the last person to advocate balance!

You said it in your summary: "...it's just as much work to maintain your social life while doing a startup as it does to maintain your startup itself."

Don't be discouraged though. You're at least bringing up important topics.

I did say it was "..as much WORK!" - as in, it's really hard to maintain a social life.

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