I think this is more about manual labour but I'll take the opposite side when it comes to white collar work that working more hours can be better early on in your career.
When I was just out of school and in my early 20s I worked as much as I could, I probably did close to 12 hours days in my 20s.
I think I probably averaged an all nighter a month for a few years and worked at least one day on weekends and I loved every minute of it.
I said yes to almost all the work I could get. My bosses loved me and I got raises/promotions faster than anyone else. I was able to compress 10 years of experience into about half that time. It really set me up for my career later on in life and I learned so much in that time.
I did the learn a language a year thing and that helped me get a job as a compiler writer.
And I was able to leverage that into becoming a quant as I put in the hours to relearn all the math I'd forgotten from school.
And I was able to leverage that to get into a pretty darn successful hedge fund where I said no to them a few times before they convinced me to join.
I'm now in my 40s with a family and I work far less but I still think it was the right move at the time. It really set me up for a life of success and I was able to see the effects of outworking everyone else pay off.
I didn't seem to miss out on a social life and I had no burn out or resentment to speak of from those days.
When I was just out of school and in my early 20s I worked as much as I could, I probably did close to 12 hours days in my 20s.
I think I probably averaged an all nighter a month for a few years and worked at least one day on weekends and I loved every minute of it.
I said yes to almost all the work I could get. My bosses loved me and I got raises/promotions faster than anyone else. I was able to compress 10 years of experience into about half that time. It really set me up for my career later on in life and I learned so much in that time.
I did the learn a language a year thing and that helped me get a job as a compiler writer.
And I was able to leverage that into becoming a quant as I put in the hours to relearn all the math I'd forgotten from school.
And I was able to leverage that to get into a pretty darn successful hedge fund where I said no to them a few times before they convinced me to join.
I'm now in my 40s with a family and I work far less but I still think it was the right move at the time. It really set me up for a life of success and I was able to see the effects of outworking everyone else pay off.
I didn't seem to miss out on a social life and I had no burn out or resentment to speak of from those days.