And many people in ads are certainly not working that schedule, and discourage those around them from doing so since it slows everything down long term.

“The best minds of my generation...”

...are probably working in a particle acceleration lab or something. I know the quote.

> I know the quote.

The quote is from “Howl” by Allen Ginsburg, a poem about burnout (among other things). That’s applicable to a report of people working a 9-9-6 schedule, a recipe for burnout.

I'm speaking specifically to this quote which seems to have drawn from it and hardly seems separable in this case. “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” As if the FAANG-type companies are somehow the centerpieces of modern intellectual activity, which is such a tech industry thing to assume.

For what it's worth, I don't work in the "tech industry" exactly.

Rather than being the centerpiece of intellectual activity as you put it, it would seem the vast majority of the "best minds" are employed in the field. Rather than more necessary pursuits, more people are applied to making us click advertisements and applied to the surveillance of our browsing habits and other activities. It's not just the FAANG companies. The city I live in is flooded with small ad-tech startups who are going to "revolutionize the world". On top of that, to hear the ad-tech teams are probably the only teams at FB that are working a crazy schedule speaks loudly. Very loudly.

Especially when it's burning out on something like ad-tech

Is it the performance review cycle pressure promoting such hours? That's firmly in the burnout territory even with high (500k+) comp...

Are you? If so, why?