Work Ethic

There is a popular meme:

“I’m tired”

“Fine, do it tired then”

It mostly circulates in hustle culture circles where everybody calls each other only bro. Still, it is one of my favorite memes, because it so precisely captures how my work ethic evolved in the last 20 years.

When I was 16 I needed a blog to share my photos on. I had no clue about hosting, WordPress, php, CSS or even what a MacBook was. I built that blog anyways, and for the first time in my life, I was happy to get up at 7am to work on something.

I didn’t care how I felt or where I sat or what I worked on. I just wanted to make things.

A few years in, I learned more. I learned how other people worked. What hardware they use and how they setup their desks. I learned about focus, the importance of sleep, silence, nutrition, having uninterrupted stretches of time.

All of this was useful information, but it slowly turned into a checklist of conditions.

I started building this idea that I was so smart and my work was so valuable that it cannot be done under the wrong circumstances. Suddenly I was convinced I could not build anything without two external displays or without a certain keyboard. I’d wake up after a bad night and think: I won’t be able to focus well today, so is there even a point in starting?

That’s a dangerous place, because it is holding you back. Instead of building and improving, you're getting better in finding reasons not to.

Some of the features I’m proudest of, I wrote standing at my desk with one hand. My newborn daughter was asleep on my other arm, and I didn’t dare move. The setup was terrible, but I had maybe 90 minutes and a problem to solve, so I worked on it.

There’s a great interview with Sam Altman about how he writes and takes notes in which he is asked to describe his perfect writing setup. His answer: I used to believe I need to be in a perfect setting to get writing done, but nowadays I’ll take any uninterrupted 10 minutes in the back of a car.

Of course, a good setup helps, and I still like mine. The trap is turning it into a requirement. Preferring good conditions is fine. Needing them in order to start is the problem.

If you’re tired, do it tired.

Note: There are definitely things you cannot push yourself through, listen to your mind and body. Talk to the people you love. It's not about continuing for every price, it's about not making excuses.