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This is incredibly bizarre, to the point where I wonder if this isn't just a creative writing exercise.

Why does he feel the need to be 'productive' for 16 hours a day?

Why did he think the best way to deal with this was to hire a group of babysitters?

Why was he being so weird to his assistants?

It just doesn't add up. The whole thing is so damn strange.

Maybe this is an experiment on the readers of his article, to see how we will react to something on the borders of credibility.



> Why does he feel the need to be 'productive' for 16 hours a day?

Yeah after reading the post I’m like this guy must be a founder to value productivity so highly… NOPE, just works at Meta!

EDIT: Oh wait, he DID also start a company, during the experiment in fact, but of course it’s in stealth mode!

Can’t make this stuff up…


Wouldn't hiring people to sit behind you and watch you work be a breach of contract?


I would think so.

Also doesn’t Meta own everything you create when you work there? I know other companies of that size do. And if so, then creating a company is breach and technically the IP of that company now belongs to Meta too.


>Also doesn’t Meta own everything you create when you work there?

I've heard stories like this but I can't imagine this would be enforceable unless the "IP" was very obviously related to his work at Meta. What other companies are you thinking of, and do you have any stories of this happening to someone?


I’ve heard examples of it happening, but can not point to any. I know my cousin was sued for changing employers, they tried to block her taking a job at a competitor(broad use of the term, but I guess fang’s think everyone is a competitor), but lost in Delaware court. So I do know they will attempt to enforce these contracts if they want to.

Many top companies do have these clauses, I’ve signed them and seen others. How enforceable they are, I’m not sure, but billionaires with armies of bored lawyers, don’t make for great opponents in legal battles.


The US federal government is going to ban anti-compete clauses, which is great news: https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/banning-noncompete-agre...


I think you mean to say, some parties in government have discussed the idea. It’s not set in stone that it will happen.


A noncompete (itself a dicy legal/moral proposition) is very different than a claim on arbitrary work/invention for the duration of employment.


I did find this thread interesting and informative about the matter, tho it is a little dated.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2208056


they don't, because stuff like this does not exist. Unless you are outright stealing like that convicted uber/google guy, or building a direct competitor, nobody cares what you do, at least in the location of the TFA.


They do exist, as I said above, I’ve signed one. Derp.


Not necessarily. It depends how much your employer cares about confidentiality. If you work at a bank like I do, then 100% yes. But if you work at some social networking site like Facebook, as this guy apparently does... realistically is some rando woman off Craigslist going to try to steal code? No. Not gonna happen.


I have a feeling this guy doesn’t really care…


Facebook will catch wind of this and add him to the next layoffs spreadsheet, for sure.


I am not sure. Zuckerberg might align with his personality and keep him.

The question is, how good is his actual work and would it be bad or good PR for Meta to keep him around.


indeed... Zuckerberg will read this post and order him a Metaverse avatar that watches porn and trash-talks him while he works : )


I hope that it is a parody of what the modern western manboy™ has become, otherwise it is a bitter window to the state of affairs of the west.


The whole time I was reading, all I could think of was this video.

https://youtu.be/_o7qjN3KF8U


Ty for bringing me to this!!


I love this video.


I’d say it’s also the perfect marriage between the gig economy and techbro hyper-optimized productivity.


>Why does he feel the need to be 'productive' for 16 hours a day?

Dude wanted to hit the front page of HN so he wrote the most unhinged productivity porn he could muster.

I do not believe these events actually transpired.


I get it...

//Why does he feel the need to be 'productive' for 16 hours a day

When you are shooting for an outcome, you want to make sure you are working on it. Productivity is the means not the end.

// Why did he think the best way to deal with this...

I can relate. I am reasonably successful/ productive, but I am exponentially more successful and productive when focused. But focus is hard. If hiring someone to focus me was practical, why not?


Related the being productive 16 hours a day, I enjoyed this blog post by Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/


Achieving a lot per time spent working seems unrelated to achieving a lot of time spent working per day. Are you sure your comments are written by a human rather than a LLM?


That's a really rather rude and uncalled-for response. Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed or something?


He is into effective altruism.




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