this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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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Some have praised Brin’s commitment to pushing the company’s success, but others argue that his approach reflects an outdated and harmful mindset.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."

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[–] thisphuckinguy 7 points 1 hour ago

Sergi can eat donkey dick.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 52 minutes ago
[–] aesthelete 12 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Outside of the google office would be a sweet spot for a guillotine.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 hours ago

I honestly think it's more like 30. If we're all just making numbers up.

[–] DegenerationIP 16 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Lol. Yeah. Shut up. Its not. Proven not.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

It is if your an ineffective manager trying to justify their salary in a time of economic crisis.

[–] madcaesar 6 points 5 hours ago

Rich asshole says out of touch moronic thing. More at 7.

[–] iAvicenna 16 points 7 hours ago

double the salary is also a very sweet spot for productivity

[–] werefreeatlast 10 points 7 hours ago

Google

---Do most harm---

[–] UnsavoryMollusk 7 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Does he hate social relationships and his family or something?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Our? Yes.

His, probably not.

[–] Matriks404 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I have found out that my productivity goes down after about 6 hours of work. And even if the productivity is seemingly the same (e.g. when I worked at cigarettes factory), I unsurprisingly made more mistakes when tired. Although I must say I am more tired when I do boring shit (or nothing lol) in office job than on production line, but it's just me.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 hours ago

What a pile of human garbage.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

60/5=12/day 8/day for sleep Let's say it takes me an hour each way to get to and from the office. Maybe 1hr for dinner

Now I have 1 hour/day to do everything else I need to do? How did this guy invent Google?

[–] Wav_function 4 points 6 hours ago

You don't have staff to clean your house, cook your food, take care of your kids, pay your bills?

What are you some kind of poor?

[–] NotMyOldRedditName 9 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

You sleep at the office or work 6 or 7 days. People aren't often doing 60 hour weeks by working 12x5 and then 2 off.

Edit: Google even has those sleeping pods!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Ah, my bad.

So just have to do 50% more work for no additional pay, give up one of the two days I get to spend with my kids and require me to incur additional expenditure on childcare.

And he's suggesting this to quite possibly the most employable software developers on the planet? Kinda sounds like a fucking moron.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Kids? They don't want you. They want childless people who they can work for the 60h or more a week.

[–] CharlesDarwin 1 points 1 hour ago

This. The ageism in the IT industry is legendary. The joke that dumbass Big Balls/ The Carver character (same thing) said about the other being 27 (like that was ancient) is very much a thing.

[–] x00z 20 points 13 hours ago

If you are a CEO, sure. But if you are not then it's quite the opposite.

If only these capitalist pigs could put themselves in the shoes of others.

[–] Triasha 29 points 14 hours ago

60 hours is the sweet spot for maximal control over your employees life with only the normal amount of suicides.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 12 hours ago

As a sufferer of Long Covid, Sergey Brin can suck my ass. Any company can deem themselves lucky if I manage to make 40 a week. There's more to life than work, and it's not like they'll pay you for those extra 20 hours.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 14 hours ago

Did that guy ever work anywhere else?

[–] CharlesDarwin 8 points 13 hours ago

JFC, and with the assholes in the government in collusion with these fuckers, they are likely to be able to make it mandatory.

The 4 day workweek is likely more optimal for humans, at least until we are post-scarcity.

[–] werefreeatlast 8 points 14 hours ago

Hurry! Before they change president and figure out all the data we stole from everyone during this glorious time!

[–] Dvixen 27 points 1 day ago

Spoken to someone who might work 60 minutes a week.

He can get fucked by his 60 hour work week. Sideways.

[–] pageflight 36 points 1 day ago

Classic correlation v. causation. The sweet spot for productivity is believing in and wanting to do your work. For some people, this motivates them to spend tons of time working. For some people, this boueys then to high productivity even while exercising great work life balance and avoiding burnout.

Google used to know this, and spend huge amounts of effort and resources on trust, enjoyment, innovation. Now that's something to find at other companies.

[–] ARotePleaseBob 133 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Why? Fuck me, that’s like a 12 hour day over a 5 day week. No-one is doing productive 12 hours day for very long, so he’s basically just arguing for an adult version of fucking daycare here.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

Well yeah. If you’re at the office that long, you’ll be too tired to do anything else like protest, organize, live life, etc.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 day ago (1 children)

...or 8.6 hours a day 7 days a week with no days off. There's no way to math this that isn't "fuck you, you don't deserve a life outside of working to replace yourself with AI."

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Or 10 hour days 6 days a week, only so the "responsible" employees can go to church.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Specially developers, you're going to spend the first 3 hours of work every day, fixing all the shitty code wrote in the 3 last hours of the preview day.

[–] foggy 26 points 1 day ago

Yep. If you want max productivity from devs, it's salary and ad hoc.

Do your work when the fuck ever. Just get it done.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago

Hey Brin, kindly go fuck yourself, you out-of-tpuch ass.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago

Kicking Sergey Brin in the teeth and working 30 hours a week is max productivity.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 day ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

At this point, it's an insult to clowns.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So nice of him to support the abuse of his employees for his personal gain.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago

It's not about productivity. Productivity drops exponentially when people are tired. It's about crushing the human spirit.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago

Hitting Brin in the balls repeatedly would increase my happiness.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago

My ass it is. We're going the other direction.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I’d work work 60 hours a week if I was going to get paid the millions they make but I’m not doing that work just to make someone else rich.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

It's beyond just making millions for someone else, it's about literally building their replacements.

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).

They want an AGI that will do all the work "for free" and they don't have to worry about pesky human workers who want things like "human rights" anymore.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

Most big players in the AI field have already said that they are not going to reach the goals they set for environmental impact by 2030. The "for free" part simply means that Earth will become unlivable for human beings sooner

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[–] axh 23 points 1 day ago

Please join my TED talk on "Why whip is a more efficient motivational tool than bonuses?"

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

There's 182,502 employees at Google.

Maybe if Brin wants to work hard, he can do all the work at 60 hours a week himself, since he's so fucking smart.

That's only 10,950,120 hours a week, Brin. Those are rookie numbers! You can do it yourself, right? Right?

You wouldn't be sitting on your ass doing nothing demanding others do all the work, right? Right??


Narrator: Brin was indeed sitting on his ass doing nothing.


Also, for context, 60 hours a week divided by 7 days a week is 8.6 hours a day with no days off or 6 ten hour days with one day off or 5 twelve hour days with two days off.

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