"Winning Formula", attract your attention
No Sleep, No Fun -> No Efficiency, No Creativity -> No good product, No good company -> No health, No life
Burnout is a bitch, at least in my case it felt like I developed ADHD. Couldn't focus on anything, couldn't remember things that were said at meetings. I managed to pull back and now things are fine but had I not I probably would have been fired from my job.
Beyond that my other thought is more philosophical: which is there is more to life than just work. I sympathize deeply with these founders because I had a mentality that was just like theirs. That mentality started to change once I met my now wife and we started building our life together. She and many of our friends are from Brazil and they taught me that the grind/hussle culture described in this article is very much an American phenomenon and everyone else is on the outside looking in going "what in the hell are those folks doing???".
When I started my company before I met my wife the goal was a billion dollar exit, private jets and super yachts and the idea that my company could become a tech behemoth. Now that vision has largely shifted to "I just want a small business that pads my income and maybe lets me buy a few toys"
Before having the baby, I'd leave the premises maybe twice a week, forced by necessity, mostly for health reasons, and I couldn't care less most of the time about seeing a blue sky or hearing the birds sing.
I've probably never worked the insane hours some entrepreneurs put in, but I've definitely worked far more than most people I know. My wife is the same. We have a great relationship, and I love my daughter, who I'm lucky to spend time with every day since I set my own hours. But if there's one thing I'm always chasing hours to do more, is working, creating. It doesn't even feel like work, as long as it's something I'm building that's mine. Sure, there are grueling tasks I can't avoid, the real eat glass stuff. But even then, I wouldn't trade it.
I've never gotten truly rich, not in the way I once imagined I would. But it's not something that weighs on me, not even the idea that maybe I never will. The real reward has always been doing the things I love to do. Recently my wife has asked me more than once if I could make more money than I do now by working less in a company. Maybe so, and I'd probably work much less with a lighter load if I were in a company job, but the idea of going back to that doesn't excite me. I like the grueling work, I like building something of my own, and I like having my own routine, even if I end up working more this way.
Different strokes, I guess.
EDIT: typo.
You're rich.
That said AI founders are not the general population and there are a few strong selection criteria biases that I think likely favors those who are likely to burn out.
Or just pretend that you, and the people you ape, aren't taking drugs to keep yourself going.
As much as I dislike a certain high-profile African-American rocket launching car salesman tech bro, at least he doesn't hide his addiction.
It's just an attempt to pass themselves off as exceptional beings who owe their success solely to their talent and iron discipline.
I don't know anyone who can keep going in the long term by neglecting their sleep and their physical and mental health.
Drives me up a wall.
And I mean intrinsically, of course, not just as a means to help produce more value for shareholders.
People also quibble on here over what exactly is genocide and should we really be against it.
Then they hate the society, don’t have moral compass and relentlessly keep trying to increase control and resources for even more ego stuff.
Sounds very unhealthy to me. Fits with the observation that numbers are all time high but everyone hates their lives and trying to destroy the system(whatever they perceive it as). Suboptimal practices are better as they leave some life on the table.
For certain, the elimination of all alcohol will help everyone achieve more in life. If this triggers you, consider you may have a drug problem.
No Sleep kills your energy and productivity. You need proper sleep to be your best. Could you imagine an NBA player saying the secret to winning an NBA championship is not sleeping and working out all night?
Mastering leadership will get you time back, and prioritizing self care time so you can go hard is the winning combo.
No Fun. Again, you need to recharge, find creative inspiration, have healthy relationships.
Overall, it is a very negative signal if founders are doing #2 & #3. It signals they are trying to cosplay looking like what they think success looks like.
The reason I have a job is because the actual most successful unicorn founders understand they need world class support, coaching, and self care to really build something incredible.
How do you get former founders to put in that kind of dedication to _someone else's company_?
Also, are these actually AI companies? By what definition? Corgi's home page appears to be _only_ a list of open positions presently, none of which are ML/AI engineers.
It is common for people to call themselves "founders" because they vibe-coded an app over the weekend and sometimes just because they have an idea for an app. Like an aspirational lifestyle thing. I suspect that is the kind of "founder" we are talking about here.
But the thing is, unless you're building your own business, it just doesn't matter. No one will remember this in five years. In a corporate environment, every doc, every line of code you wrote will be replaced or forgotten far sooner than you suspect. Two or three reorgs later, your team might not even exist as a distinct entity. There will be no statue of you in the hallway after you're gone.
It's also not your family. If you become any sort of a liability, if you make an off-color joke, if the revenue metrics are off by 5% - thanks kid, here's the door. The first layoffs you go through will be devastating precisely because they crush that illusion. Yeah, your manager might be a genuinely nice and caring person, but by the end of the day, if they're asked to sort a spreadsheet with your name in it and then draw a line somewhere, they will, and there will be "nothing they could do".
The only lasting thing you're getting out of the heroics is the money you save, the skills you learn on the job, and for a short while, the reference you get from your old boss when you apply for the next job. If you optimize for that, you'll probably have a satisfying career. If you don't, you wake up one day realizing that you've given up a good chunk of your life to make Sam Altman 0.01% richer, and that's that.
If a company is demanding that you sacrifice social life and well-being, ask yourself what's it worth to you. Are they paying more than anyone else? Or do they just want to get more kLOC out of you for free?
The correction can't come fast enough so the real, actual value-producers are left standing.
When will people realize that the money doesn’t mean anything if it costs you your life?
About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family. “You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman to the fisherman.
“You should be working rather than lying on the beach!”
The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, “And what will my reward be?”
“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer. “And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling. The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”
“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.
The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said.
“And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.
The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!”
Once again the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”
The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”
The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?”
It mostly looks like an act to me, a cargo cult where if they offer up enough "work" they'll be rewarded, disregarding any usefulness.
Personally I don't agree even for founders since I've seen too many that end up just grinding the gears without producing value - when that leads to meetings etc reducing the productivity of the entire team it's a problem. But committing to a stressful life as a founder in itself doesn't seem that bad as long as it's not propagated poorly to the team.
The booze I can take or leave but is laughable to give up booze but then impair your judgement another way with a low sleep schedule.
Thats a lot! For most people quitting alcohol is not going to give that level of boost, even close to it.
Oh please. What a puritanical take. There is nothing wrong with the moderate consumption of alcohol - a glass of wine a week is hardly dependency.
I'll still cook with red wine/meat sauces and white wine/seafood. But at least right now, am reconsidering any alcohol past 20%.
Just look up alcohol cancer risk. Tons of articles from reputable journals. Emotional or religious crap doesn't get me to accept. Science does, and it seems to corroborate. Even if you leave out US government sources for potential compromise of ethics, there are still a great deal of primary journal sources.
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/most-americans-unaware-o...
Long story short: dont drink alcohol.
The reality is, unless youre working on something that is actually revolutionary and positively going to impact humanity (which is rare I know) - who cares? Many people get wrapped up in their identity for work and its pretty sad. Little do they realise, they play straight into the hands of those who want them to be a productive asset and nothing more.
This describes me almost exactly when I was in my 20s. However, I have far fewer regrets than you might. My career progressed a lot faster than it otherwise would have, and thanks to salary compounding my family enjoys much greater financial security than we otherwise might have. The institutional and product knowledge I gained in those days enables me to now have a much more relaxed work schedule and spend time with my family while still delivering value. And finally, it’s fun to walk through a lab and see the software I wrote unprompted over a few weekends still humming along two decades later on hundreds of stations.
I am under no illusion that my company is my family, but I didn’t do it for them. I did it for myself, and the company happened to benefit. There have never been any loyalty expectations on either side, and I would probably do it all over again.
The secret is that the "crazy hours" tricks works best in a normal company, because your contributions stand out. If you're in a place where everyone is expected to work 9-9-6, you're not getting ahead, you're just keeping up until you burn out.
Regular eating is for losers, AI startup winners keep battery packs up their arse to keep them going for months without break.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28521683/
As in all things, informed moderation is the key.
How do you know if you have a drug and alcohol problem?
1. Do you have problems in your life?
2. Do you use drugs or alcohol?
Turns out to be a pretty useful mental model.