[kevinskii]

> ” I worked crazy hours in my early 20s because I liked it. I liked computers, I liked my team, and to be frank, I had not much else to do. If I went home early, I would be spending time on the internet anyway.”

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.

[non_aligned]

I have no regrets. My point is that it's easy to have regrets if you build your self-worth around the company and your impact there. That's the part that's almost always too ephemeral to matter.

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.