I think it's an especially bad idea at high levels of the company, because of the long feedback loops. If a line worker makes a mistake, they will hopefully catch that within hours. If they make a bunch, somebody's going to come talk to them in short order. If an executive makes a mistake, it can be months or years before the problem is obvious. But the more tired I am, the more my focus shifts short-term and the less I notice subtleties and small mistakes. increased error rates and long feedback loops are a very bad combination.
[1] http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres...
> If an executive makes a mistake, it can be months or years before the problem is obvious
To finish the parable: If an engineer makes a mistake, it might not be noticed until users start to die while operating the product.
For Musk it might make sense, but I doubt it makes sense for most of his employees. Its not worth fucking your health and social life up over a payout, unless its huge. The typical Tesla worker isn't going to make enough from it to make it worth it, in my opinion.
> Yeah, that kind of effort is not sustainable for more than a few months at most.
Agreed, although likely you'll experience negative effects much sooner, although you may not properly burn out for a few months. There were some posts on HN recently about the long-lasting health impact stress has.
And yet it's also a perfect example of the one time it does make sense to do so, which is when you own a decent chunk of the company that you're doing it for.
> No wonder things were going to shit. Nobody can do good work if they don't get enough rest and have too much stress.
Yeah, that kind of effort is not sustainable for more than a few months at most. Trying to push too hard just burns out your best people, even (especially?) if they're part owners.