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Comment by Reeddabio | Hacker News Reader

It's wishful thinking to believe any of this works. When you get older, have bills to pay, have to work, you have to give something up. Those morning runs, playing warcraft, taking your kids to school, spending time with your wife in the evening. Something has to give, and for how long is the question.

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Don't forget that one of your co-workers will die. I just got out of a meeting where I was told the guy who called it died over the weekend so his department needs to find someone else to reschedule it. That happens a few times and you start thinking do you really want to be working at all (you of course needs to eat and all that, but is what you are doing really how you want to spend most of your waking hours). Something has to give, and often what really gives is not what you want to give unless you are really careful.

This should be pinned as the top comment on 80% of these kind of blog posts as a reality check. Don't get me wrong, I'm (relatively) young, ambitious, and love growth and learning. So I eat these posts up.

But as I age and grow, I notice the challenge of the balancing act more and more.

The post already contains the caution.

"I wouldn’t do it every year, because I would probably collapse from exhaustion, but I’m grateful to have been able to contribute to such a project."

Why should the comment be pinned when it doesn't even grasp that the blog post isn't advocating, at all, that people should be in high-growth sprint mode 24/7/365?

I think because of that very error - it’s not advocating that, but it’s so easy to think you must always be like that, when reading articles like this.

Articles like this are written and promoted expounding the benefits of this kind of productivity, regardless of the actual reality of it. It's not just easy to think it, its the cultural millieu to push people in this way.

> I think because of that very error - it’s not advocating that, but it’s so easy to think you must always be like that, when reading articles like this.

I've met hundreds of co-workers and literally none of them has ever advocated for an unbalanced work-life balance, except in the case of over-balancing towards life (that is, neglecting very reasonable duties at work, that are relied upon by others).

I've also read hundreds of thousands of HN comments, and very, very few of them advocate for a bad work-life balance or spending all of your time and energy at your job, being vastly outnumbered by comments calling for balance.

I don't see any evidence that "it’s so easy to think you must always be like that, when reading articles like this" - especially because only someone lacking basic critical thinking skills will think that a description of what something is, is advocating for doing that thing.

One thing you can’t give up though is your employability. Jobs come and go either by choice or by force.

I was definitely the “expert beginner” between 2002-2011. It wasn’t until my 4th job in 2012 that I realized how far behind I was. That’s also the same year I got (re)married with 2 step sons. I’ve stayed in the learning phase mostly since then.

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