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I recently happened upon an interview of Elon Musk on his work ethics: http://youtu.be/4Fl9LRgG3_A http://youtu.be/4Fl9LRgG3_A The main takeaway was work as ha

by Oculus 12y ago

I recently happened upon an interview of Elon Musk on his work ethics: http://youtu.be/4Fl9LRgG3_A http://youtu.be/4Fl9LRgG3_A The main takeaway was work as hard as you can (i.e. 80 - 100 hour weeks). Even if you're doing the same thing as the competition (assuming they work 40 hours), you'll still accomplish in 4 months what they would in a year. Hard work, tenacity, and a little luck is what separates the smart from the brilliant.

mattm 12y ago
It doesn't work like that though. I'm sure most developers have had the situation of not being able to solve a problem at the end of the day but the next morning you end up solving it in 10 minutes. People need rest. Without rest and recovery, your decision making process gets worse and slower. The people I've worked for that were putting in 12 hour days always seemed to be the people that wasted the most time at work.
ACow_Adonis 12y ago
Yeah, except at least on that last point Musk is wrong (and i know saying that on HN is kinda like saying that jesus isn't the son of god in Rome). He's just repeating his own self congratulatory narrative. Human's are biological creatures. Just like when we run, when you go for 30 seconds vs 3 minutes vs 3 hours vs 3 days, the relationship of what happens is not a simple linear one of input. We tire, we lose concentration, we actually get worse if we go all out for long periods than if we act in controlled and conscious burn with good amounts of rest and down time. As another poster has said, what does happen is that the ones that put in the long hours, in my experience, are often the most incompetent, the magical thinkers, the ones most out of touch with how much they're doing, and the ones putting on the show. Of course, in this world, the ones that put on the show are the one's that often get the most rewards... Musk is though, spot on with the first two points though. Things other people value. Tenacity. Hard work, is of course needed, but baring some kind of ridiculous genetics which border on not existing, your productivity drops magnificently once you start going longer hours. That's primarily just for show...

by Oculus 12y ago

mattm 12y ago

It doesn't work like that though. I'm sure most developers have had the situation of not being able to solve a problem at the end of the day but the next morning you end up solving it in 10 minutes. People need rest. Without rest and recovery, your decision making process gets worse and slower. The people I've worked for that were putting in 12 hour days always seemed to be the people that wasted the most time at work.

ACow_Adonis 12y ago

Yeah, except at least on that last point Musk is wrong (and i know saying that on HN is kinda like saying that jesus isn't the son of god in Rome). He's just repeating his own self congratulatory narrative. Human's are biological creatures. Just like when we run, when you go for 30 seconds vs 3 minutes vs 3 hours vs 3 days, the relationship of what happens is not a simple linear one of input. We tire, we lose concentration, we actually get worse if we go all out for long periods than if we act in controlled and conscious burn with good amounts of rest and down time. As another poster has said, what does happen is that the ones that put in the long hours, in my experience, are often the most incompetent, the magical thinkers, the ones most out of touch with how much they're doing, and the ones putting on the show. Of course, in this world, the ones that put on the show are the one's that often get the most rewards... Musk is though, spot on with the first two points though. Things other people value. Tenacity. Hard work, is of course needed, but baring some kind of ridiculous genetics which border on not existing, your productivity drops magnificently once you start going longer hours. That's primarily just for show...