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The author clearly values hard work. She felt meaning in her work and reflected on that. The idea that all hard work or, God forbid, a hard working culture is toxic is probably why it's so much harder to achieve big things in the modern world. Hard work isn't always burn out and hard work isn't always bad.

More often than not its during the hardest working times that you learn or achieve the most.

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All hard work is not necessarily bad in small doses. A culture of constantly working, being afraid to go home, and skipping vacations for the company's benefit is toxic, full stop.

I mean this in the most literal sense - that kind of environment breeds stress that kills you. 3 years of long days at one company turned my hair gray by 28. Another 3 years at that company had me on blood pressure meds. I'm doing much better at a BigN now, and other than a week of primary oncall each quarter (for which I am well paid), I go home at 5pm every day and do other things with my life.

Agreed. If you're an individual who wants to work this hard, hopefully you can find a team of like-minded folks who will work hard with you and make sure that it is structured in a way that you all reap the benefits.

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