996

You're all answering from a very privileged standpoint. I started my career in tech from a small town in Argentina. When broadband was prevalent around the world (2012) I was still working with a dial up connection on a $200 computer.

I grew up seeing what poverty and lack of opportunities does to people, and I was determined to break away from that.

I got a job at a startup by sheer luck, and it completely changed my life. Heck, I was not even doing 996, I was getting up at 7AM and going to bed at midnight EVERY DAY including Sundays.

When I was not squashing tickets at a 2X rate than my European coworkers, I was learning new things, trying out new projects, writing blog posts for the company, doing customer support. I didn't care.

So yes, I agree now (from a privileged position) that 996 might be unhealthy in the long run. But let's not gate-keep or be naive enough to understand that some kids will need to put that effort if they want to make a difference. And yes, ideally the world would be fair and everybody should need only 40hs/week to make a living, butt that's a fairy tale.

If you're a young ambitious above-average person, and you're going to listen to people claiming this is "bad", please also compare your to their privileges: race, geographic position, net worth of your family, etc...

I don’t know if I would classify “living in a country with labour laws” as “very privileged”

What does this even mean? You literally say that you were working harder than your coworkers. Was your job under threat or something? This just sounds like an unhealthy case of imposter syndrome.

> But let's not gate-keep or be naive enough to understand that some kids will need to put that effort if they want to make a difference.

Sure, they'll make a difference for the founders/CEOs of these companies, who will walk away completely minted while their employees might pull enough out to get a house. IF the venture doesn't die before exit.

In some countries, access to drinking potable water is a privilege. Imagine "labour laws".

>> people claiming this is "bad

There is no circumstances when it is good. Especially if it is pushed by employer/manager. If you want to work 996 or 7 days per week, or without annual vacations - it's your choice but no way anyone should be pushed to work that way.

Very true.

I had a coworker (Phd Stanford) go and tell a bunch of poorer neighborhood highschoolers "you don't need a phd to be sucessful" while partially true it's painful to watch those sitting in the sweat and blood of their forefathers discuss how it's actually morally wrong to work as they did.

Thank god for H1B because foreigners are the only ones who actually seem to understand this anymore.

USA has a "nobel class" it's almost identical to the british empires class structure. Thr upper class of the british empire directly thought working hard was a negative hence the "gentlemen" did almost nothing.

Your job in life is progress not to subsist on your parents and grandparents work.

I went from piss dirt poor to relatively wealthy situation – this is bad. Just because I went through bad, doesn’t mean someone else had to suffer it.

Vacation and choice is a luxury the majority of the world does not have, you are making his point.

The mentality they are saying is the mentality that has given you the luxury of vacation and choice. The west did not rise to its place without an incredible amount of suffering.

OP wanted to distance themselves as far from a bad economic environment as they could.

For people early in their careers, working hard is the best way to grow their future earnings and opportunities. They have too few skills, connections, and experience to differentiate otherwise.

Focusing only on the asymmetry between those with and without meaningful equity misses the point.

Not everyone is lucky enough to get equity from day one. The rest of us have (at most) a few critical points in our careers to do well enough such that we get a shot at meaningful equity at some point in the future.

For those from underprivileged backgrounds, they’re lucky to get even one chance in their careers for meaningful growth.

> If you're a young ambitious above-average person, and you're going to listen to people claiming this is "bad", please also compare your to their privileges: race, geographic position, net worth of your family, etc...

I grew up dirt poor from a family of fishermen that were bankrupt before I even left highschool. 996 is bad, companies are taking advantage of people and it needs to be stomped out like a fire waiting to burn.

Almost all countries have mandatory vacations, by law. How is it a luxury?

I'm not taking about trip to Maldives for a vacation. Just a paid rest from work.

Hard disagree. What does privilege have to do with this? Why do you need to work in those conditions because you're poorer? I'm all up for making a huge effort to get out of a shitty situation, but giving it away to a company makes no sense.

I'm also from South America, I don't think promoting people to kill themselves working for someone else is the way out

Oh u right I'm just making stuff up my bad