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Comment by josephpmay | Hacker News Reader

The author is not necessarily wrong, however he provides absolutely no data short of personal antecedents to back up his claims about the inefficiency of "Crunch Mode." I'm sure punctuated periods of stress have been extensively studied, and I wonder if these studies align with what the author is saying. It seems to me that being able to cope and be more productive in sudden high stress situations would be evolutionarily advantageous. "Crunch Mode" is not unique to the software industry, as a trip to a college dorm during exam season will clearly point out.

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It has been studied (first in 1909 by Henry Ford!). As I understand it the results agree with the original post.

In short, you can use crunch time strategically to meet deadlines but you always need a recovery period afterwards. If you work 60 hour weeks, in about 4 weeks your productivity will drop lower than it was when you were working 40 hour weeks - despite putting in 50% more hours. Also many people in this burnout zone will self report that their productivity is higher than it was (and they're wrong). If you've been crunching for a month straight, you're working ineffectively and you're too tired to tell.

Here's a presentation on the topic from Dan Cook, with links to papers: http://lostgarden.com/Rules%20of%20Productivity.pdf

And here's a fantastic write-up of a recent quantitative study in the games industry. They looked at how the success of video games correlates with crunch time and overwork. I suspect that these results would also hold true amongst startups: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PaulTozour/20150120/234443/Th...

Crunch / cram in college is often a symptom of poor time management by students.

Crunch time in business is a symptom of poor time management by management.

True, the author does not provide empirical data, but anyone who has worked through a few projects culminating in a rush is familiar with the effects on person and quality.

Personal anecdote isn't evidence, but I trust it more than handwaving appeals to evo psych. You do realize too that humans at college age don't have fully developed frontal lobes, otherwise known as the seat of planning and discipline?

Or perhaps I'm just attempting to justify my bad habits.

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