The interview I just had (with the YC founder that inspired this post) also asked "Do you have kids?" point blank as one of his first questions - seconds after I met him on the video call. Should have mentioned that in the post as it's also pretty inappropriate. This was before he asked if I was okay working 7 days a week.

> work hard and intensely during business hours but take it easy outside of that mindset

I am all for a work hard/play hard mentality, and I embody that truly, even moreso in my 30s. I don't have a lot of family commitments and often work longish hours anyway (~8-7) but even in a 9-5 context there's something rewarding about seeing how much I can possibly get done before some milestone like lunch or the end of the day. I optimize the entire morning around time spent coding and in my head I've already solved the problem the night before, and am optimizing on my commute after sleeping on the solution. By the time I get there I jam through the code, hit a stopping point at PR or something else, and it's usually only early afternoon. Hit a second wind around 3-4, ending around 7. Meanwhile I'll see founders do nothing until 5, then half-work from 5-9 and pat themselves on the back for "staying late", and go so far as to ask why I'm not staying later than 7 like them (despite me building most of the product).

Even more than a 9-5, I love environments where I can say "waves are good this week, won't be at standups" and nobody cares because the work will still be done, and it will be higher quality work with better documentation and presentation because my lifestyle is still in tact - I'm happy - and you see it in my work. When founders focus intensely on breaking their employees' lifestyles, they're almost asking for lower quality work from less happy employees. Something only an inexperienced founder who doesn't care about financial success would be involved in.