No. You can't stay focused for 11.5 hours a day, especially not 7 days in a row, especially especially not week after week after week.
I'm a former software engineer. The best engineers absolutely, genuinely can work very long hours and remain productive. 80 hrs/week might be a bit high, but 65 hours a week at 3x average-programmer-productivity is definitely something that exists in the real world, and although it is rare, it is not vanishingly rare.
Hacker News is in denial about this extremely simple fact, even though you can easily verify it by e.g. working at FAANG for a couple years. Probably because lots of Hacker News readers are kids who have not gotten to work with a broad cross-section of programmers; and because the rest of us are literally slacking as we post here, and want to believe our slacking is some kind of biological necessity.
I agree with your broader point that PG's line of reasoning is, at best, a gross simplification of the real world (although I still enjoy it as an intellectual exercise).
I'm a former software engineer. The best engineers absolutely, genuinely can work very long hours and remain productive. 80 hrs/week might be a bit high, but 65 hours a week at 3x average-programmer-productivity is definitely something that exists in the real world, and although it is rare, it is not vanishingly rare.
Hacker News is in denial about this extremely simple fact, even though you can easily verify it by e.g. working at FAANG for a couple years. Probably because lots of Hacker News readers are kids who have not gotten to work with a broad cross-section of programmers; and because the rest of us are literally slacking as we post here, and want to believe our slacking is some kind of biological necessity.
I agree with your broader point that PG's line of reasoning is, at best, a gross simplification of the real world (although I still enjoy it as an intellectual exercise).