You people are crazy!

Now sure, you may achieve something huge and it might all be worth it. But in the mean time you're missing what remains of your youth and neglecting your family.

You don't have to put that sort of time in to 'win' at life with software. You can make really good money and live a life inaccessible to 99.5% of the world's population by working 37 hours and being good at it. If you need to be part of the 0.5% then don't let me put you off trying, but I'd be giving serious thought to whether I really needed it or if my life would he better scaling it back and taking time with loved ones.

It is the price we pay. And I'm not getting any younger. (Early 30's.)

I don't want to change the world, I want to enjoy it, which is why I take on consultancy work and take prolonged vacations in between.

Life's too short whichever path you take :)

I'm in the same boat, doing a spare-time startup while holding a day job. And I"m not young - my kids are grown. But I'm paying for their college, so I can't just quit and do the startup full-time, not until I've got it generating at least a little cashflow.

The trick is to overwork but try to get on the shortest (leanest) path to revenue.

But keep in mind that not everyone is doing a startup to get rich. Getting rich is a nice side effect, but the heart of it for me, and for a lot of others, is personal freedom.

False dichotomy, there are other life choices. I'm a freelancer and I maintain a good income and a healthy work/life balance.

I also don't believe it to be 'a year or two'.

>> I'm in the same boat, doing a spare-time startup while holding a day job. And I"m not young - my kids are grown.

Then you're in a different situation than the OP, IIRC.

>> Getting rich is a nice side effect, but the heart of it for me, and for a lot of others, is personal freedom.

This is why I like freelancing/contracting/consultancy. The money is good and the freedom is unparalleled.

Part of my motivation is that I'd like to build the biggest thing I could possibly build. I'm not going to accomplish that in the straitjacket of someone else's big enterprise project.

Working 40 hours week plus 5-6 hours afterwards every day does not mix with having a family, or especially not if you got kids. Maybe if you got a 5 minute commute you can do some hours but not 5-6.

> I also see many other smart successful people putting ridiculous efforts day in and out to win. And its in every profession.

And then there are the really smart people who realise they are most effective by not over doing the hours, but maximise the hours they do put in. You still have to put a good amount of effort as few fat sportsmen are successful, but also they know not to over train (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining) and reduce risk of injury.

I also refer to another recent HN article (http://mikehadlow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/are-your-programmer...) and its linked book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematician's_Apology).

Well that's the most stressful part.

Its stressful because you need to be surrounded around by people who can appreciate what you are doing and why you are doing it. Either way what is I see is, and this is the case with nearly every one. Everyone's family wants a rich dad/husband/brother/wife/sister/mom, but no one really has a clue of what it takes to get there- Until they've done it themselves.

I guess this is the reason why people marry in the same professions. To an extent it helps the spouse understand what the other person is going through.

Also from the blog post you linked to:

"I would submit that the appearance of hard work is often an indication of failure."

Sorry but the author totally lost it when he wrote that.

Some would rather have one that is present.

are you really willing to bet everything on that very debatable claim? Money makes little difference after the basics are covered, and the basics are not what the soap operas would have you think.

Please, spend time with your children. Take the hit, spend the next 10-15 years in a dead-end job if you absolutely must, but come home after that and spend time with them.

Not judging, just urging you to rethink the position that your kids need your money more than they need you. Peace!

Just to echo some of the other comments above, this is absolutely BS. How many kids, when they grow up, say "I wish dad worked overtime so we could be rich". Compare those kids to those who say "I wish my dad was around more, but he was always working".

To think your children will be disappointed when they're not rich...well, you're living in a self-inflated bubble. I hope you come out of it.

Pretty much. When I was starting up my company, I was putting in 50 hour weeks at my IT job that I hated and another 10-30 (depending on mood) developing the tech and business processes for my current startup.

We don't get to punch the clock and expect greatness.

It seems like there's often a lot of cognitive dissonance going on in these threads - when we're talking about managers or people other than us telling us to work > 40 hours a week, it's widely accepted as counterproductive, but when we do it ourselves, we ignore the data and revert back to platitudes about pushing yourself harder and not being complacent.

Or he could be self-filtering - after all, he made it and if others can't then they're wimps and not tough enough.

Men are especially good at this. By the path he's chosen I would guess he's an alpha male to begin with.

But keep your eye on the prize. Work toward liberating yourself from the day job. You may not work any less, but at least you'll be working entirely for yourself.