So I generally agree with your post, but is this what constitutes early riser these days? I get having kids and missing the key 7-9am time slot, but is an 11am start time a Usual Thing?
Then it's 11, then they get ready for the day, then it's lunch time. Then it's lunch coma. Then by 3PM they start gaining speed. By that time, I am already exhausted.
VP of engineering who is not on top of the commit activity only sees me there 10 to 5, but they see the dude staying late with them.
I practice sleep hygiene and have tried cutting out caffeine. Conversely, there's no amount of caffeine capable of facilitating deep work before 10:30-11AM, just end up frantically clicking around articles and wishing for sleep.
Maybe these people aren't trying to game the optics, they just are naturally at their most productive from 11-7. IMHO it's awesome that your company allows that kind of flexibility (and that the morning startup is at 10:30!)
The thing that saved me were these $35 acupressure mats. 20-30 minutes and I am out.
Waking at 6, 7, 8, 10, seems pretty arbitrary, but waking up at 0-hour feels more significant to me.
I've never really thought about why that is, but just the relative difference between the numbers may be part of it
Personally I like to start working around 8, so I can triage the monitoring while the brain runs through the last boot processes and unit activations so I can use those (for me) very productive hours between 9 and 12.
I’m usually ready to go full speed by 8AM, I wfh and kids are out the door to school by 7:35-7:40Am.
/in the US and work in consulting
I saw that on the east coast, which is partly why I moved away.
In silicon valley my norm (for ~25 years) has been to start around 11am which is much more tolerable.
With somewhat younger kids (preschool), they too are out the door by 07:35-07:40, but it's me who's walking them to their facilities, which means there's no way I could possibly start working before 09:00, or before 09:30 if I don't want to start on an empty stomach.