Forty Hours Vs Fun

I love to work. Sometimes I feel lucky that I get to stay at work late... other times im pissed when my girlfriend says i have to come home at 5 or 6. Is this a bad thing. Does this make me less productive? Should i limit myself from what I like to do?

I say no. If you want to work 40, 50, or 60 hours a week... so be it. Have fun. Have as much fun as you can.

On the other hand. I like the idea of only being required to work 40 hours... hell I even better like the idea that you are required to work 30 hours. If you find all people are working is 30 hours then maybe they are in the wrong field. Maybe they need to get a different job or start a different career.

Part of the idea behind the FortyHourWeek is that it is where many of us most effective. I love my work enough to only give it good hours. Maybe you would like the EightHourBurn viewpoint more.

In my mind it mostly all boils down to what type of work people do. Some jobs are just like being alive, you might as well be doing them as doing anything else, they are 'life'. The line between work and play is vague and blurry and your job, to which you are well suited, is satisfying, varied and one you find supremely interesting. In fact - You're so well suited to it that you often don't notice you're doing it and the hours just flyyyyyyy by. Whereas others are so confined and restrictive, so detached from your life and what you'd much rather be doing, that they're positively unhealthy to be involved in for anything above a 40 hours a week. These are the jobs where you notice every lonnnnggggg, draggggging hour pass and the ones that make your alarm clock sound so disgustingly bad in the mornings. These are the jobs that keep you wondering if the karma-ghosts are out to get you. http://www.billyblob.com/animation_f/karma.html

The point about blurrry lines between job and play is very valid. I find myself working a 10 hour day and not even notice it. Then again when I look back and add it all up I realize what really happened. I read google news for about 3 hours and I talked and drank coffee for about 2 hours. This means I got a solid 5 hours of work done in my 10 hour day. Maybe this is why pair programming is so effective. With that other person always next to you keeping you in check you will actually stay more focused on the real task at hand not reading Bushisms all day long. - CaseyHelbling

See: FanaticOrientedProgramming, GetaLife