I managed to work like that for ~9 months; when you work on some bleeding edge stuff like inventing some new Deep Learning method you can actually have fun and be eager to keep doing it. If it's just usual treadmill caused by silly decisions from the top and inability to push back to customer, then it's hell.

that type of work is < 0.1% for most of the use cases we're talking about here. Generally it's just a huge corp abusing their employees.

Sure. I summarized rules that helped me when I needed to do that. Somebody might find that useful (e.g. while starting their own business or going through exponential growth).

Personally if I was running my own business, single, and childless I think I would do that. But I would never do that just to make someone else rich, or to the detriment of important relationships

I have 2 jobs (say 55h away from home, but one being on duty even though on location, i get to sleep a bit) yet I still wish I could have more work or work more. For various reasons :

* if you have to work that much then you probably are doing something important, or your opinion is needed on various things. Either way you feel important and valued (even if it's complete bullshit in the end)

* keeps you from boredom. I wouldn't waste my time like I still manage to do.

* satisfies my own masochism. I just like to suffer, somehow

* take up the challenge. I am confident that I'm a rather quick thinker and that I could do it marginally faster than most.

* hopefully pay follows. And the experience is always valuable for later employment.

I really dream of drowning in emails and an elongated to do list. Alas none of it at 27 and I fear it's too late for me, and that I'll just be a mediocre unnecessary worker all my life.

Uh, volunteer, find a hobby?

A lot of these reasons are personal and fine but...

> hopefully pay follows. And the experience is always valuable for later employment.

I hope it doesn't, because if pay follows your self-destructive habit then other people will be forced into it if they want to receive similar compensation and it becomes a race to the bottom for our time. I value my personal leisure time, I need quiet brain time to unwrap my thoughts from the deep intricacies of the work I do on a daily basis - if your brain is more resilient and can keep going at 100% 24/7 that's great, enjoy it as it'd certainly be interesting to always be on - but I value my time and the more that working > 40 hrs becomes normalized, the more we workers lose our gained ground in minimizing the work week.

Lastly,

> Alas none of it at 27 and I fear it's too late for me, and that I'll just be a mediocre unnecessary worker all my life.

Don't worry, I've known forty and fifty year olds that have been balls of stress and anxiety, it's still well accomplishable, but! Unless your physiology really is different, being a ball of stress and anxiety - running constantly on adrenaline - it's the sort of action the human body can only sustain for so long. Never let that last point (money) convince you to sacrifice your physical well being either today or down the road - your life and what you're living is more precious than anything you'll ever produce, and that's true for everyone.

I have a hobby, I own a horse which takes 3 hours daily and is a very powerful stress relief. I’m not overly sensitive to stress in a professional setup anyways. That’s also why I think I have a decent profile for such niche requirements.

But it’s not enough yet especially on weekends, since my jobs do not follow me out of their walls, neither in thoughts nor in their missions.

No interest in volunteering. Not because of money but I’d rather learn something and/or enjoy myself, and selflessness or social missions help neither for me.

It doesn’t have to be the norm, but it can still be an advantage for the ones endowing it.