Is 996 quietly becoming the norm at AI Startups?
The AI gold rush feels like it rewards teams who ship fast. Many teams are working on a 9-9-6 (9am-9pm, 6 days a week) schedule to keep up with the state of the art breakthroughs and features. Does this give teams an edge against their competition or is this slowly burning teams out.
If you're building in the AI space, I would love to hear what your take is:
What works for your team and do you follow the 996 schedule?
Did following a 996 culture create more bugs or actually lead to breakthroughs and push you ahead of your competition?
How would you balance your life outside of work if you followed this schedule?
Making this post to raise awareness and ideally find a middle ground for teams that are currently growing and trying to keep up with the competition đ„
Replies
I don't believe we should make a case for counting the hours worked. You can work a lot of hours and accomplish nothing, or you can work a couple of hours and nail all your goals. In my case, I find it more productive to set weekly goals and adapt my work hours around that.
Onyx
@lizzieyuan2025Â That's great to hear! Do you think your team is doing healthier and more focused when they are working together?
Onyx
@lizzieyuan2025Â love to hear it! Whereâs your team based out of? Asking for a different thread that I have going on! https://www.producthunt.com/p/general/which-cities-outside-of-sf-are-becoming-large-startup-hubs
Product Hunt
I hope not. I didn't move into startups away from being a chef just to work more hours than a chef lmao
Onyx
@aaronoleary also coming from the food industry, I definitely think back to the long hours but now I get to work on things I'm passionate about and not wash dishes from random people
CalPulse
I still canât wrap my head around the 996 work model... It seems like a recipe for burnout rather than innovation.I believe that overworking often doesn't yield better results. When people push themselves too hard, the chances of making mistakes increase, and it's tough to come up with great ideas under that pressure.
Onyx
@peilan_qin Some people may argue that their best ideas come from their toughest moments but I definitely don't think that's the case all the time đ Burnout is real and many people are dealing with it with the higher bar they have to meet to compete
CalPulse
@justin_tahara Completely agree! Very few people can keep up high energy and productivity during tough times. Most of us really need to find a balance between work and rest to do our best work. đ If someone thrives in a 996 work schedule, that's cool, but being forced into it long-term can lead to burnout and bad results.
Onyx
@peilan_qin absolutely, it should not be forced upon anyone and if someone wants to voluntarily work hard, be my guest but I do think that people should know their limits and figure out what works best for them to get the highest quality work out of their work hours
Cal ID
I get the hustle for speed, especially in AI, where everyoneâs racing, but honestly, 996 feels more like a âburning out in styleâ badge than a real edge.
In my opinion, builders do their best work when theyâre actually excited about the problem, not just watching the clock.
Iâd rather have a team thatâs rested and thinking straight than one thatâs always on but just going through the motions.
If youâre grinding just because everyone else is, itâs worth asking what youâre really racing toward. Balance isnât just a buzzword - itâs how you actually keep shipping.
Onyx
@sanskarix Agreed. If the work is enjoyable and the goal is something that you are working towards as a team, it should be enjoyable and you should see natural enthusiasm within the team to be able to continue working and knowing to take breaks when you need
minimalist phone: creating folders
When you are founder in the initial steps of your startup, you sometimes work 7 days for more 12 hours. Especially when you are not VC-funded and do not have enough resources :)
Onyx
@busmark_w_nika agreed! Luckily Onyx has some great investors so we can now focus and work on our product the way we want to âșïž
Triforce Todos
I think the industry romanticizes grind culture too much. The teams that balance energy + speed will still be here in 5 years when the hype dust settles.
Onyx
@abod_rehman Do you think that there are teams that just look at the big AI companies and copy their working hours without thinking too much? Balance is definitely key and knowing when to sprint and knowing when to rest are what keeps team healthy and balanced in my opinion
Great discussion starter! Something I love talking about...!
I think social media has had a huge huge role in glamorising hustle culture and monk mode etc, forcing many people (especially younger ambitious ones) into real burnouts, and often serious mental problems.
For me I work completely targets based, and try to listen to my body and mind properly. Often i find if i hit a flow state then I'm good to go for 9-9, or if I'm meeting a self imposed deadline I'll put the hours needed in.
The other thing I have strong opinions on, and especially relevant for the AI space, is that given the speed that people can build and ship full scale apps these days, there's a lot of fear around building too slowly. Speaking from personal experience, i feel pressure to build and ship before someone types a prompt into one of the many native language tools and creates what I've spent months on!
Onyx
@theo_crewe_read Great points. Glad to hear that you are balancing and listening to your body to understand when to push and when to rest. I do agree that it is daunting and scary to know that other people can take your ideas and implement it on their own in days not months now.
Onyx
@manu_goel2Â I agree, when there are proper goals in sight, it makes it easier to break down the problem into smaller digestable problems that you can timebox and work through easily.
I wonder if the "work" itself isn't the bottleneck anymore. I'm creating stuff so fast that it doesn't even matter how hard I work on it, if it's not done in a couple hours I'm kinda annoyed. I'm finding that the clarity and thought behind the product is mattering a little more to me at the moment. I'd certainly built more if I worked a 996, but I don't know if it would actually move the needle.