It's easy to believe that on average longer hours may not have much marginal improvement to productivity but that for you specifically they do.
And being able to convince yourself that your team is special, not just average, is an ability that is more often found in people taking big crazy swings.
Especially if you have a history of working overtime in crunch time in your own career in the past and believe that you couldn't have finished certain projects on time if not. (Which could be different than working long hours every day for years, but then you're back to the potential for nuance around "on average" and "for me and my team, because we're exceptional.")
Everyone thinks that they are special and that their take on X is special.
Once in a while, they're right. Most of the time, by the definition of the law of averages, most of them are not.
Maybe I just have no ambition to become the next trillionaire because I'm lazy or whatever, but I am under no illusion that me or my team are exceptional. We're good. We get stuff done. We make money. Investors like us. Our customers like us. Our business partners like us. And many people here on HN are likely in a similar boat. Many without working 996.
And being able to convince yourself that your team is special, not just average, is an ability that is more often found in people taking big crazy swings.
Especially if you have a history of working overtime in crunch time in your own career in the past and believe that you couldn't have finished certain projects on time if not. (Which could be different than working long hours every day for years, but then you're back to the potential for nuance around "on average" and "for me and my team, because we're exceptional.")