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Comment by twohaibei | Hacker News Reader

Friendly warning about expected working conditions: https://twitter.com/lukeshiru/status/1563493902560428034

I don't understand the hand-wringing about this. Bun explicitly says, they are a small team working very hard on some hard problems. If that's your idea of a good time, you're free to try and join. If you want a chiller job, there's 1,000 of them out there. It's not like Jarred is some corporate overlord demanding people slave for him while he sips margarita on a beach... he just wants people working on the same frequency as himself.

There's a school of thought on work life balance which amounts to wanting just enough life overhead to support the work. That 'balance' is not for everyone - but crucially it is what some people want.

Companies wanted to say they have "work / life balance"; rather than change their practices, they expanded the definition of work / life balance.

By this definition, is there any company that doesn't have work / life balance? By this new definition you propose, does the term mean anything?

Is 996 a good work life balance because "it is what some people want"?

>That 'balance' is not for everyone - but crucially it is what some people want

I've never seen anyone that could sustain an 80+ hour per week grind and make it out without severe personal issues (whether they are willing to acknowledge it or not). I've seen many, many incredibly talented people burn out and suffer permanent health or career damage to hit their short-term goals. I personally know an otherwise healthy 30 year old swe who had a stress related heart attack. It may be what some people want but you can't grind your way out of being a human.

But are they compensated or are we dealing with disguised wage theft[1]? A lot of times, when it's time to pay all that overtime or when someone finally speaks up about it, suddenly the "fun" stops.

Then there is the not speaking out, resulting in: 1) Burn out and quit. 2) Company dumps or fires them after burning them out. Then does the same to the new ones. Until something obvious or tragic stops them. 3) Quiet destruction of personal lives. Sometimes leading to significant health and/or mental problems, related to stress, and even suicide in some cases.

Balance is necessary, because otherwise it can be like playing with fire. It's all "fun and games", until people get or realized they got burned.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_theft

New product teams are a grind, but with the right people, also a lot of fun. It isn't for everyone. When I was hiring for a NPT working on cutting edge tech I told everyone I interviewed they the work life balance was super skewed.

The people who accepted job offers self selected for having a passion for pushing technology forward.

I tried to keep things as sane as I could, but I'd have to go in on weekends and usher people out of the office.