The 996 (9am to 9pm, 6 days a week) work pattern has been in the news again. This gruelling schedule started in China (whilst we in the West looked at it with a mix of horror and secret, productivity-induced envy), has now made its way to Silicon Valley.

A handful of tech firms are now reportedly leaning into the 72-hour work week. On the surface, it sounds like a Victorian workhouse with better coffee and ergonomic chairs. But if you look closer, it’s not just about more hours; it’s about the total colonisation of the human calendar. In the old world (the one with filing cabinets and boozy lunch hours) work was a place you went. In the new world, work is a state of being - ‘founder mode’, ‘locking in’, and ‘grindcore’ are all popular phrases on social media amongst its Gen Z endorsers.

The genius (or tragedy) of the 72-hour week isn't that people are sitting at desks for three days straight. It’s that the boundaries have become so porous that we no longer know when we’re working. Is a "brainstorming hike" work? Is a "networking dinner" leisure? When your office has a laundry service and a gym, or (perhaps worse) if you work from home, the 72-hour week isn't a schedule; it's a residency.

Rory Sutherland often points out that we value things more when they are framed correctly. Frame 72 hours as "crunch time" and it’s a soul-crushing slog. Frame it as "locking in" or "founder mode" and suddenly it’s a status symbol. It’s the professional equivalent of an ultra-marathon: something that is objectively miserable to do, but provides immense social capital once you’ve done it.

The real danger isn't fatigue (the tech industry is awash with ADHD drugs like adderall for that). The danger is the narrowing of the perspective. If you spend 72 hours a week surrounded by people who think exactly like you, solving problems for people exactly like you, you don't build tools for society. You build tools for a bubble.

We’re essentially asking the people who design our social infrastructure to live lives that are entirely anti-social. It’s a bit like asking a monk who has taken a vow of silence to write a manual on how to host a successful cocktail party.