The fallacy of this is that more creates more. More hours, more hiring, more something.
And it is true in a sense. If you put in more work, more work will happen. But I think for most startups, the leverage is really in how differently you approach the problem, how well you cultivate your team, and the strategy.
Any large company can outspend you on hours. They have thousands or tens of thousands more people, spending more hours. If hours worked were the metric, every large company and government organization would always win and do the best work. More hours, better output.
This thinking is often representative of younger founders, where the startup becomes their identity and life. They have a hard time doing anything else, and cannot understand that your work is not the person that is you. But activities outside of work can grow you as a person too and make you do better work.
I’ve never worked this way. As a designer, I always saw the need to take a step back, to take a break. At times, I might work 12 hours or 16 hours, or whatever amount was needed, but it wasn’t the norm. You just can't grind design, you need inspiration. But taking that step away from the work, would give me more perspective, inspiration and I could approach the problem differently or I could just see the solution.
Grinding is never good for any creative problem, and startups or creating new products are often mostly about creative problem solving. Grinding works ok for email jobs, or where you just executing on very clear playbook.
With Linear, we’ve never worked this way. We work reasonable hours, 5 days a week. All of us founders have families. Many of our employees have families. I personally stop every evening, spend time with the family, cook dinner for the family, eat dinner together, and focus on things outside of work. Sometimes I work in the late evenings or weekends, but to me the pride is that I don’t need to. Company should be succesful without it.
My goal is to build a company that is sustainable in the long term, and doesn’t require heroics or personal sacrifices every single day.
There are times when our team is heroic. Launches, incidents, some other work that just needs to be done. They will work late into the night because they know it is the right thing. But we don’t require that every day or every week, and the more this happens, the more I think it is a failure of our company and leadership. The team and the leaders should always keep a reserve to use when something is needed.
Our thinking was also that quality, which we value, doesn’t emerge from working more or stressing people more. It emerges when you create the conditions for it to emerge. Often it is the appreciation, space, time, and how the person feels. A person who is rested will do better work.
I wouldn’t attribute much of our success to working a lot. The success came from having clear thinking, ideas, and focus to do the right things.
I sometimes wish we could move the culture more toward a Zen master.
Real mastery is not exerting the most effort. It is achieving the outcome with the least necessary effort.
Défaite pour notre équipe académique contre WAVE ESPORTS, ça arrive donnez leur de la force ! 🐝 #VITWIN
Nouveau match demain en duo cast avec @VECTIZZ1 à 18h30 sur ma chaine twitch! Très hâte de voir ce que ça va donner ! 👀
A demain pour encourager les joueurs ! 💛
Ce soir match ESEA pour l'équipe CS VIT academy vs Wave esports à 20h sur ma chaine ! #VITWIN
Un match (BO1) pour s'entrainer vu qu'on est déjà qualifié aux plays-offs ! 🐝
Je lancerai mon live vers 17h30-18h (occupé cet apres-midi...), à tout de suite les gars! 💛
▶️ PLANNING CAST ! #VITWIN
Le planning de la semaine pro est dispo 👀
Au programme : 4 matchs ESEA + un match décisif pour la qualification en playoffs des United21 pour nos @TeamVitalityCS ACA 🐝
Rendez-vous lundi ! 👇
🔗 https://t.co/CwLEtKCkuU
📅 https://t.co/bjAt14EIfo
▶️ QUI NE SAUTE PAS N'EST PAS KATKAME !
Malgré la défaite d'hier, notre prodige @Katkamee nous a sorti un clutch de zinzin... 🇫🇷
Prochaine rencontre lors des @OfUnited21 Season 49 ce vendredi 15 mai à 12h30 !
Vous avez également des matchs ESEA toute la semaine (planning 👇)
Hype hype finally got the win🥳, It was really needed for mental state and also to show us that we have improved.❤️ Really proud of my mates🥰
@Katkamee@Dafra1D@_lucaZ_cs@patrenzocs@VdaK1NG
LETS GOOOO FINALLY A WIN !!!! no honestly apart all of that, it feels good to have a win even a small one, we are working a lot these days but the result are coming slowly as expected, we are improving ! @Dafra1D@patrenzocs@_lucaZ_cs@alekscs2
🚨 LE RETOUR DE VITA ACA ! #VITWIN
Ce soir, le retour de nos abeilles, actuellement en 2W - 3L, il va falloir assurer ce match !
On aura la chance d’avoir @arno3K à l’obs, ne loupez pas ce banger
📅 Rendez-vous ce soir à 20h30
🆚 @esportBERG 🇩🇪
🔗 https://t.co/CwLEtKCkuU
Stop telling ChatGPT "Write me an email"
Stop telling ChatGPT "Write me an email"
Stop telling ChatGPT "Write me an email"
Bad request = Bad result
Use this one weird trick instead and you'll see the magic:
🚨🎙️| KATKAME : « JE VEUX CRÉER MON PROPRE CHEMIN INSPIRÉ DE ZYWOO »
« On a pu faire plusieurs pracc avec l’équipe principale, dont une qu’on a même remportée ! De mon côté, j’ai aussi pu observer @zywoo en conditions réelles »
Interview complète ⬇️⬇️ #VITWIN
🇫🇷 @Vitality_Neo : "Voir 🇫🇷 @Katkamee partir chez 🇺🇦 NAVI, ça aurait pu être un véritable aveu d’échec."
Plus de 40 minutes d’entretien avec le président de 🇪🇺 @TeamVitalityCS. 🐝⤵️