每周工作 80 小时的神话The 80-hour Myth
让我们认真谈谈。没有人每周工作八十个小时。不是真正高效工作的八十个小时。仔细观察那些工作狂（我自己就当过，也和不少工作狂共事过），你会发现他们的很多时间都花在闲逛、回血、循环、切换状态这类事情上。在过去，这叫饮水机旁的闲聊；在硅谷，则是打游戏、收发邮件、即时消息、午餐和无所事事的会议。别演了，好吗？即使你不得不工作八十个小时，你也并没有真的工作那么久。从经济学的角度看，超过某个临界点之后，边际生产力是递减的。这个临界点因问题而异（有些问题，比如软件工程，需要很长的启动时间才能把一个复杂的问题加载进你的工作记忆）。
事实上，你最好的成果很可能是在巨大的、专注的爆发中完成的，周围环绕着漫长的平淡与无所事事。所以，与其试图强迫这种爆发变得可预测、可持续，不如想办法最大化这种爆发出现的概率和它的生产力。
首先，衡量产出，而不是投入——无论对自己还是对组织都是如此。否则，你就会被现代知识工作者蒙蔽，他们极其擅长在办公室里消磨时间、向上管理。
第二，在更长的时间尺度上衡量生产力，比如以周和月为单位，而不是以天为单位。我见过的一些最有创造力、最高产的人，都是以数周为周期爆发式工作，然后又有几周几乎无所事事、只是闲着。这是人类的天性。
第三，把同伴压力引入进来。在软件行业，这通常通过"极限编程"来实现；在商业中，则通过"团队协作"。管它呢。让两个高产的人坐在同一间屋子里解决同一个问题，一旦其中一个人进入上升周期、准备开干，他/她很可能会激发另一个人，带动对方一起前进。
第四，创造一个有利于周期性高效产出的物理环境——放弃办公室，选择非传统的工作场所，让人们拥有空间，让他们自己安排时间。
最后，从长远来看，在担当和产出上要毫不留情。没有什么比一个平庸而又"稳定可靠"的执行者更能毁掉一家创业公司了。
现在，去更努力地工作吧……
Let’s get serious. Nobody works eighty hours a week. Not eighty real, productive hours. Look closely at workaholics (and I’ve been one, and worked with ones), and a lot of the time is spent idling, re-charging, cycling, switching gears, etc. In the old days this was water-cooler talk. In Silicon Valley, it’s gaming, email, IM, lunches, and idle meetings. Let’s drop the farce, ok? Even when you had to work eighty hours, you didn’t, really. In economic terms, there is lower diminishing marginal productivity beyond some point. This point hits differently for different problems (some, like software engineering, require a lot of startup time to load a complex problem into your working memory).
In fact, your best work was probably done in tremendous, focused bursts, surrounded by long periods of dullness and inactivity. So, let’s try to figure out how to maximize the probability and productivity of such a burst, rather than try and force it to be predictable and prolonged.
First, measure outputs, not inputs, in yourself and your organization. Otherwise, you will be fooled by the modern knowledge worker, who is highly adapted to spend time at the office and manage upwards.
Second, measure productivity over a longer time-scale, say weeks and months rather than days. Some of the most creative and productive people that I have ever met work in multi-week bursts and then have weeks where they just idle with little done. It’s the nature of the human animal.
Third, introduce peer pressure into the mix. This is often done in software via “Extreme Programming” or in business by “Teamwork.” Whatever. Get two productive people in the same room on the same problem, and as soon as one hits the upward oscillation and is ready to work, odds are that he / she will inspire the other one and move them along.
Fourth, create a physical environment conducive to oscillatory productivity – eschew offices for non-traditional settings, let people have space, and let them keep their own hours.
Lastly, be ruthless on accountability and output over the long term. Nothing damages a startup like a mediocre and reliable performer.
Now go work harder…