Wow, I didn’t think one off-hand remark in a blog post would cause such a controversy. I mention that we’re working 18 hour days and people assume that we’ve been entranced by slave mongers.
Let me clarify. We’re not working 18 hours of straight productive work. That’s both ludicrous and naive to assume. The human body literally cannot do that for an extended period of time and still be able to think clearly.
What that comment was supposed to convey was a sense that while you’re in YC and working on your product, it’s like being at a summer camp. You may not be playing tag all day, or learning how to tie knots, or drinking apple juice that tastes like eggs — but you certainly are at summer camp for your waking hours. You can’t help it, you’re freaking there.
That’s what being in a startup is like, it’s a lifestyle. So in those 18 hours we do things like eating, talking, taking walks, going for drinks, taking breaks, etc. Everyday I’ll spend two hours reading my RSS feeds. The guys in my house like to read books while taking a break. But when you finish those things, you are pumped to get right back to work. Not because anyone is forcing me, but because I want to. When you work at a startup, you don’t think of it as work; it becomes a passion.
And yes, we are away from our loved ones, and we don’t have time to go to Splash Mountain… so what? It was and is our choice. And it’s just temporary. I would suggest that most people who work in startups know how to appreciate the things that matter most to them. I don’t value a commercial entity over the people that I love. I’m not taking part in this because of some cult-obsession. If I had to choose between this startup and the things in life that matter most to me, I’ll take the latter option every second of everyday.
It’s just one summer. After this summer, we’ll continue working on it, but in a much more moderate setting. Demo Day is a motivator, as it should be. People have given up a LOT to get here. Good-paying jobs, material wealth, time with loved ones. We would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t give ourselves the best shot possible for taking advantage of the opportunity. We are working harder than we normally would because we have a massive constraint to work around, one that we knew about from the beginning.
People talk in retrospect about their 10 weeks of YC as being the most productive of their lives. People pursue that productivity in their own ways. If you don’t have the same sense of drive or urgency, odds are you probably shouldn’t apply.
