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'Eat, Sleep, Code, Repeat' Approach Is Such Bullshit (signalvnoise.com)
At its I/O developer conference, Google had the message "Eat. Sleep. Code. Repeat." spread everywhere -- walls, t-shirts you name it. Dan Kim, a programmer at Basecamp, has shared an interesting view on the same. He says while he gets the "coding is awesome and we want to do it all the time!" enthusiasm from the company, but he doubts if that's the approach a programmer should take, adding that the company is wittingly or not promoting an "unhealthy perspective that programming is an all or nothing endeavor -- that to excel at it, you have to go all in." He writes: Whether it's racing cars, loving art, reading, hiking, spending time in nature, playing with their dog, running, gardening, or just hanging out with their family, these top-notch programmers love life outside of code. That's because they know that a truly balanced lifestyle -- one that gives your brain and your soul some space to breath non-programming airâS -- actually makes you a better programmer. Life outside of code helps nurture important qualities: inspiration, creative thinking, patience, flexibility, empathy, and many more. All of these skills make you a better programmer, and you can't fully realize them by just coding.
Sundarajan, a victim of Indian coding sweatshops now "projecting" his traumatic experience onto us
Its a play on the Fatboy Slim song Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat. Someone needs to take the stick out of their ass. Maybe someone should buy Dam Kim a shirt with Keep Calm and Carry On plastered on it.
Ok now try to explain that to some one who bought into it unknowingly and structured their life assuming that it was true.
This is the intent behind such advertisement campaigns. To force as many people as possible into a weak position for the benefit of the advertiser.
Google is basically an appendage of the US government for almost every practical intent and purpose.
I wouldn't be so sure about this. Unless you're comparing businesses from a similar culture.
E.g. in Japan, presenteeism is an issue. People might be at the office for huge hours, but much of that time is spent fucking about rather than focusing on work. OTOH, in countries like Germany, if you don't get your work done in the allocated 8 hours, you're considered weak and incompetent.
Culture matters here, but also, it's up to the local leadership to set the tone. Some workplaces just have dumber managers who measure the wrong things when understanding developers' productivity. These same workplaces might also embrace technologies/approaches which destroy programmer productivity too (e.g. overreliance on online chat and emails, expecting devs to be preemptable at any time, etc etc).