I recall reading an article with Bill Gates in which he said, “It's really hard to work 40 hours/wk.”  He meant that it's hard to work 40 intense, dedicated, worthwhile hrs.  I think that's true (for most people), and I really appreciated that quote–I've seen tons of academics & software industry folk who live in their offices but somehow don't get much work out the door.  My impression (could be faulty) is that they're not able to start with their highest-priority tasks and they have a fear of other people that prevents them from just finishing something and putting it out there–they want to guarantee an outcome & are not comfortable with uncertainty or ambiguity, because they are afraid of other people.  I believe these people (my friends & former coworkers) would get more done by developing outside interests, cultivating non-work-related friendships, and limiting themselves to 60 hrs/wk in the office.

On the other hand … when I worked in academia I was appalled by the shoddy quality of lectures & (especially) the bad citation practices of people who published articles.  Hard to see how those people could have improved their work other than by putting a lot more hours in.

Merkur zoggen…

high inspiring. time for me to get back to work

You mention a lot of people who appear to have ben exploited, or drove themselves to work too hard, and the ending is very bad for them (though you seem to have conveniently ignored that).

I would caution against setting a 100 hour work week as you goal, unless your work really is the. Only thing that matters to you in life. For a very few people it is, but most people will want to enjoy their free time, and form healthy, stable relationships and families. I know I definitely want to.

It seemed too good to be true, because it was. What Westerners DIDN'T see was the high suicide rate, families who essentially grew up without a father, and the cult of zangyo, where those lower on the totem pole would arrive before their bosses, and leave after them, in order to appear more favorable when promotion time came. Birth rates plummeted, schools became so competitive that the kids stopped learning how to think critically, and learned instead how to do well at tests. Upon graduation, they were almost useless.

And then, the bottom dropped out. The inherent inefficiency of the whole thing was exposed, and their economy tanked (and it STILL hasn't recovered after 20 YEARS). I used to work in a big company in Japan. I watched one worker go through his inbox tray (paper), read each document carefully, place it in a separate pile, then put all those papers back into his inbox tray and read them over again. And the punchline is: this was perfectly normal behavior!

It's not about working harder, and it's most definitely NOT about doing it all yourself. By taking on so much upon yourself instead of delegating, YOU become the bottleneck in your organization! The more things you're handling, the more people must rely on you for confirmation, but since you're so busy all the time, they spend a lot of time WAITING FOR YOU.

So wake up, stop working such stupidly long hours, smell some fucking roses, and live a better life. Success comes to he who understands the opportunities and knows the virtue of patience. The asshole who juggles 4 girlfriends is short-term success, long-term unsustainable.

I am not sure what the purpose of life is. But you need to atleast have a purpose. All the author is trying to tell you is to have a purpose. 100 Hour Work Week. You must be kidding me. I would like to add one video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...