alt Hacker NewsAs usual, the problem is not 996 itself but comp. You can get 996, you just have to pay for it.
The reason Europeans don't want to do 996 is because the extra effort isn't fairly compensated.
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Not only is it rarely compensated, it's rarely effective.
Software work is bursty and creative, not mechanical and hourly.
That's a good callout - I have found European employers and founders to be much stingier with salaries in comparison to those I've worked with in the Bay or Israel, but I feel a lot of this is because of much more conservative investors, with boards pushing back on more "realistic" compensation.
I've been adamant about paying 75th percentile TC - I want the employees in my portfolio companies to be extremely motivated, and that requires incentivizing employees and founders correctly
I wouldn't work 996 because I like having weekends off and a life outside work
if you surround yourself with people who are only motivated by money, you will believe that everyone is only motivated by money. if you surround yourself with people who are motivated by a creative urge to build something they can be proud of, you may start to believe that this is everyone's motivation.
it is often useful to think of people as only being motivated by one thing, to see clearly how application of that thing might change their behaviour. but if you believe that is the only thing that motivates them, you will have a very simplistic (and eventually incorrect) model of how they are motivated.