8/9     I'm 5 years out of college and I'm a lot lazier than before. I used
        to work 12 hours a day and was the king of our product. Now I barely
        work 4 hours a day (still get paid pretty well) and I don't really
        care about our product. Am I normal?
        \_ you're asking the motd if your *normal*!? um.. yeah, are you a
        \_ you're asking the motd if you're *normal*!? um.. yeah, are you a
           white or asian male between 22 and 35 who rides a bike to work
           at their sysadmin job for which they are paid upper 5 figures or
           six figires? do you carry alot of handguns? do you read unix
           source code for fun?  are you a libertarian? yes, you're normal.
        \_ I can't answer the normal/not-normal question. I'm 6 years out.
           Now I find I care more about bringing other programmers up to
           speed and turning them into better programmers. I still care
           about the product, but not as much as the company would like.
           That is, I've seen companies change product requirements at
           the slightest whim, so I don't get too attached to any particular
           product.
        \_ Well I'll be the the first to admit; I used to be a workaholic
           when I got this job at my current startup. Put in 60+ hours a week,
           worked two project sites, and almost gave up social life entirely.
           Now I limit myself to no more than 40-45 hours a week and I no
           longer live to work. I'm no longer over-passionate about work but
           still proud about what I do. Inner-happiness is, like Mastercard
           would say, priceless. - jthoms (5.5 yrs out)
           \_ I seriously hope you're not the first against the wall when
              the layoffs come.
              \_ He'll be the first up against the motd!
              \_ Luckily we're still OK in terms of financials so no layoffs
                 for us. Plus I'm still one of the cheapest employee they
                 have (since I'm the only junior guy here); and plenty of
                 useless senior guys here in front of me. :) But I am in no
                 way stating that I'm a slacker at work; I now know when to
                 stop working and enjoy life. - jthoms
                \_ how much are you paid?
                \_ Enough to cover major expenses and then some.
                |_ are you making six figures yet?  I am thinking I need to
                reach that in a year or two.  I am currently doing JSP/Servlets
                I can certainly do the whole product from start to end by mysel
              \_ Only the stupid ones don't appreciate a balanced worker.
                 Granted, too many of them are the stupid ones, but still..
                \_ considering EVERYONE went up against the wall when  the
                   layoffs came, I'm glad I didn't put 60 hrs a week into the
                   life suckers.   Doesn't matter how good your code is or
                   how good the product is, if yer company's busdev people
                   dont know how to make a buck off it.
        \_ I believe it is typical for those out of college to work
           very very hard.  Then later, cut down on their work because
           they are getting tired, or because there are other things
           in their life which are becoming more important than work.
        \_ the key is getting other people to do the work for you.  looks like
           you still got a lot to learn, grasshopper.
        \_ I must be the abnormal one here.  I've been in the business over 7
        years and I work exactly the same # of hours now as I did at the
        beginning, approx 40-45 hours/week.  The big difference is that now
        I am much more experienced, so I can tackle much larger and more
        complex projects and work much more efficiently.