In the note, shared internally and viewed by the New York Times, Brin urges staff working on Google’s Gemini AI projects to put in long hours to help the company lead the race in artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Some have praised Brin’s commitment to pushing the company’s success, but others argue that his approach reflects an outdated and harmful mindset.

“The hustle-centric 60-hour week isn’t productivity—it’s burnout waiting to happen,” wrote workplace mental health educator Catherine Eadie in a post shared by LinkedIn’s news editors.

Others said they feel that hard work is essential for success, with a COO of a business analytics business writing, “Brin is just being honest—successful people have always put in long hours."

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    5 hours ago

    It’s burnout waiting to happen

    So? Then you fire them and hire fresh meat.

    Humans are replaceable, no?

    /S, of course

  • AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org
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    6 hours ago

    Last summer there were a bunch of stories reporting findings that companies that experimented with a 4-day work week saw productivity gains over the traditional 5-day, so this billionaire’s opinion sounds out of alignment with reality

  • varnia@lemm.ee
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    6 hours ago

    We are slowly shifting to a 4x8=32h work week here. 60h long term has nothing to do with productivity anymore.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Ahh, the typical manager misconception. Nope. Long work hours don’t equal high productivity.

    But I can understand that misconception, as it takes those people up there many more hours to get a single useful idea compared to those under them who actually do the work and earn the money.

  • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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    8 hours ago

    I’m sorry that Sergey Brin apparently doesn’t have hobbies or family/friends that care about him, but 60 is still wrong. We have computers and work multipliers and have perfected efficiency… We don’t need to spend the majority of our lives toiling anymore! Some would argue against 40, but at least that gives a balanced workday: 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of leisure. And I say all that as someone who actually likes their job…

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      8 hours ago

      Commuting should be included in the 8 hour work day. I shouldn’t have to give up some of my leisure time to drive to work.

      This would also incentivize denser cities.

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        Commuting should be included in the 8 hour work day

        This would also incentivize denser cities.

        How come? You’d be paid the same regardless, be away from home for the same time regardless; suddenly it makes sense to move further away from work.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          7 hours ago

          Because you won’t get hired if they have to pay you to drive longer hours. Employers would be incentivized to hire locally.

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            6 hours ago

            So you’re saying you want prospective employers to tell you “Sorry, you live too far, we hire only within 5 city blocks”?

            There should be non-discrimination laws for distance, otherwise anyone not living in the city center would be truly fucked in the hiring process AND your employer would get to tell you that if you move farther away, you’re fired.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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              5 hours ago

              I want denser cities, the whole point is to discourage people from living outside the city.

              It would require a transition period so people have time to leave the suburbs and small towns, but we need as many people as possible on as small a land footprint as possible in order to restore habitat, reduce transportation emissions, reduce the cost of transportation infrastructure maintenance, and otherwise reduce the amount of land and energy and time wasted on people driving 30 miles to work every day.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        7 hours ago

        Not to brag, but it is for me! But I’m also not paid a large amount. And it absolutely should be for everyone…

  • OmarDontScare@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Well, if Sergey Brin wants to work 60 hour weeks, be my guest. Sounds like a good idea for the CEO class, since they should really justify what they’re paid.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      Sounds like a good idea for the CEO class

      Mate, he’s a class or two ABOVE the CEO class. He’s in the “trillionaire soon maybe?” class where you don’t get to be by just being a CEO, you have to own major stock in a massively overvalued company that just keeps on growing.

      He should be working at LEAST 50000 hour weeks to justify his continued growth of wealth at this point. Why the lazy bastard isn’t doing it is beyond me.

      • OmarDontScare@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Totally agree! I use CEO in that way, but yeah, he is definitely an uber rich asshole, who is paid way more than could ever be fair. Definitely more than could ever be what he ‘deserves’ or ‘earns’.

        Right now, i think some of these people are absolutely unable to participate in society because they literally exist outside of the normal bounds, far outside of them. And exactly that will create major problems, well it already has and we’re living through it. What’s to keep these assholes from actually demanding this kind of work hours from workers? Like, they will do so, absolutely, once you let them.

        I’m just not at all sure in what way in the current liberal system, we’re able to limit the wealth and power of these individuals. Yeah, taxes of course, but these people are so deeply connected to political class and are able to bully the legal system… So, that’s a hard challenge there.

  • RetroSoul@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I’d be down to work the 60hrs if it was voluntary overtime. But constantly? Probably not.

  • thingAmaBob@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I thought 6 hours per days were best? Also, where I work, we’ve gone through voluntary overtime, working 60 hour weeks. People start to look like zombies and are more prone to mistakes by week three. It is simply not sustainable.

  • canajac@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    Another B$ telling us how we should live. How about fawking off Sergey!

  • meowmeowbeanz@sopuli.xyz
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    12 hours ago

    Irony alert: pushing humans harder while building AI to replace them—brilliant strategy, Sergey.

    😾

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    people like this shouldn’t be allowed to finish their sentences on their own terms. it should be cut short by an extreme force.