For a second issue, there is a certain perception that start-up founders can produce far more than 40 hours/week of quality architecture and programming. Founding a company involves believing in that at some level. I agree it's not in the category of most people, but neither is start-up founder. If you have a serious belief in your ability to do so, try working like crazy on 3 month contracts and see if you actually can. Over 3 months you're unlikely to burn out completely, and you can adjust your expectations of the kind of hours you're capable of accordingly.
Perhaps. But working 4000 hours a year, and producing 4000 billable hours a year, aren't the same thing. There's lots of "fluff" that goes into running a business. Sure, if you can show me someone that are able to produce quality code for 4000 hours a year, that'd be great. But sounds like the EA death marches to me. On the other hand those games, bugs and all, do rack in a tidy profit. So maybe I'm wrong, and you can throw shit at people for a year, and still have them come back for more shitty code the next year?
