Business Insider writes about Ryan Carson, founder/CEO of a programming-education company called Treehouse, who three years ago generated some attention “when he announced that his 87 employees would enjoy a four-day workweek,” and would be required to only put in32 hours a week.
"There's no rule that you have to work 40 hours, you have to work more to be successful," Carson told the Atlantic in 2015.
It was an experiment that did not work.
“"There was a lack of work, like, literally a lack of work ethic … It created this lack of work ethic in me that was fundamentally detrimental to the business and to our mission," he says. "It actually was a terrible thing.”
And, he says, “The difference I want to communicate is, there is a certain amount of hard work you have to do. The whole like grind thing is kinda bulls---. I think you can work smarter, but I don't think you cannot work harder. You've got to do both.”
As for Carson, he says he now works 65 hours a week.
So much for “work smarter, not harder.”
"There's no rule that you have to work 40 hours, you have to work more to be successful," Carson told the Atlantic in 2015.
It was an experiment that did not work.
“"There was a lack of work, like, literally a lack of work ethic … It created this lack of work ethic in me that was fundamentally detrimental to the business and to our mission," he says. "It actually was a terrible thing.”
And, he says, “The difference I want to communicate is, there is a certain amount of hard work you have to do. The whole like grind thing is kinda bulls---. I think you can work smarter, but I don't think you cannot work harder. You've got to do both.”
As for Carson, he says he now works 65 hours a week.
So much for “work smarter, not harder.”
- KC's View:
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For me, work never has been about hours. It always has been about effort and efficacy. The only clock I really pay attention to is the deadline clock … though I concede that I have an unusual situation in which work-life integration is more important than work-life balance.
I have no problem, conceptually, with a 32-hour work week, in which quality of work is more important that quantity. The problem I have is that there’s always more work to be done and more items on the to-do list. And I think that’s true for most people.
That said, I think I agree with Arianna Huffington, who has been arguing that Elon Musk’s reported 120-hour work week probably means more than anything else that he needs to get more sleep. At a certain point, productivity and creativity begin to suffer…
