> If you're doing 70+ hours a week, you're working for the wrong company. Move.
Or maybe you're working in the wrong industry. The cynic in me cannot help but label enthusiasm for creation of games as a severe economic handicap - one that many companies have no qualms taking advantage of. You love games? That's great, you'll also love unpaid overtime.
I just watched a documentary about Pixar and they mentioned John Lasseter used to spend 3 weeks straight in the office working. Just because you're working a lot, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the wrong company.
Here's a funny quote from him:
why do you have the best parking spot? John Lasseter "Because my car hasn't moved in 3 days"
Not disagreeing with your point (in general), but in this case Lasseter was doing it the worst days of Pixar - the days that any day there was the possibility that Jobs might shut the whole place down...
It's "The Pixar Story"[1]. A great documentary, highly recommended.
But Pixar wasn't all roses either - during the tight production of Toy Story 2 (because they changed almost all of the story and had to rush it for christmas), a couple (who were both animators) forgot that their 1-year old was in the car (and not in the day care!), and the girl was there for almost 10 hours... She lived, but still a pretty horrible story.
The source for this unpleasant anecdote is [2]. It's a long talk by Ed Catmull, but I can't recommend it enough. It's really, really awesome.
Success hides problems (Ed Catmull)
Want to know why Pixar was awesome for soooo long? It wasn't luck, and it wasn't because they had great animators. It wasn't even (entirely) because they told terrific stories. It was because they constantly learned from their "successes"... Watch (or listen) to Catmull's talk. I guarantee that you won't regret the 55 minutes you spend on it...
