My first manager at Google (and the first in my career) had 2 young kids, around 5 and 7 respectively.<p>He left the office every day at 6:30 sharp and, like clockwork, would answer emails and code reviews starting at 10. Eventually we learned to time our emails and code reviews according to this clock.<p>The consistency of the timing was remarkable; our favorite theory was that was his kid's bedtime. I guess in effect, he was putting two sets of kids to bed each night :).
Kind of an interesting full circle. I remember reading his "why I'm leaving Harvard for Google" post a while back and If memory serves it was because he was doing to many managerial type things that he wasn't thrilled about yet he finds himself in a similar position again a few years later. It would be interesting to hear what he thinks of his current responsibilities compared to the teaching job he left.
> Despite this, I still do not have the faintest clue how Bitcoin works.<p>Oh thank god. Not about bitcoin specifically but it feels the whole world has managed to find the time to do a course on FRP, brush up on SEO, configure a Hadoop cluster, grok Haskell monads and still work out what a Mocachino is.<p>Glad to know mortals still exist.
"8:00pm - Freedom! I usually spend some time in the evenings catching up on email" - I guess Google managers have a slightly different view of freedom from work than I do.
SWE in MTV: I get up early (~6am) and try to get to the office by 6:30am, as the time before 9am is the only time my severely over-crowded open office is quiet enough to code. Most days I have 1-2 meetings. I generally leave around 4pm, pick my son up from school, make dinner & then catch up on email after 8:30, when my son goes to bed.<p>All in all, it is very relaxing compared to my last job. I was full time remote, and probably worked 80 hours a week. I have a much better work/life balance now, as I generally leave my work at the office.
While that doesn't seem like a lot of hours, the thing that struck me was I didn't see a single thing in his actual day (other than maybe a 10 minute bike ride, or reading a book at night) that I'd personally enjoy doing. Yet, he seems perfectly happy -- good for him.<p>People really have totally different preferences. It's more striking when laid out like that.
I really enjoyed this article. The grass is always greener, and I get that, but man that sounds like a great way to spend your day! Personally, my daily grind is aimed at one day having a daily grind like this.<p>I loved the emphasis on family and balance. Timely article for me, I guess.
I worked at the Google office in London as an SRE. I arrived their via acquisition. Google was a leisurely existence in comparison to the startup world. I could easily achieve nothing if only by just enjoying the endless perks. In the early days I had a lot to prove and pulled double duty by trying to stay awake in multiple time zones to get things done quickly. In the end being in my 20s I felt like I was losing my edge being there and had to go back to the startup world. Maybe one day I'll return when I have a wife and kids.