Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Without bragging, but I have succeeded in two of my startups and I have always been super lazy. Work life was mixed all the time. But never had stress. Always took time for myself. And maybe worked 3 days effectively a week. Remaining time I spend with my kids and hobbies. I dont believe in this rat race 60 hour a week thing.



You are totally bragging, but that's OK. I would hope you recognize the huge amounts of luck and context that go into a success like yours; many people work their asses off and still fail.

>> I dont believe in this rat race 60 hour a week thing.

The question is do you believe you were successful because of, or in spite of this?


Neither.

Success is never determined by hard work. It's always a combination of many other factors and at best hard work may contribute a little. Otherwise the billions of very hard working people struggling to feed their families would be extremely successful.

But that's not a story that you put on a poster, so people prefer to believe the lie that killing themselves chasing "success" is a good thing.


Hard work is preferred by employers over slacking off (for obvious reasons), so that's what gets promoted as the way to success.


I like this view. I’m not especially successful (by any of the measures knocking about) but in the midst of a startup again for the last year. This time I work how I want to work and am actually enjoying myself. The whole 80 hours a week startup thing is padded with a lot of performance art in my experience. I am actively avoiding all that this time around. I find that I solve a lot of things by not doing them or solving them when not actively trying. We’ve made great progress so far.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: