Perhaps my ambition exposed me to the worst of our industry: Apple Macintosh pre-release developer (everything in Assembly), OS dev for both the 3D0 and the original PSX game consoles, was at E.A. during the E.A. Spouse Era, managed a game studio for several years while also coding on titles, was a director of R&D for the first Internet live video infrastructure provider, worked in feature film VFX across 9 features while earning an MBA, failed at a very ambitious VFX/Advertising startup, and worked more recently as principal of a leading facial recognition developer. Across all these specialties, I've had a career composed of 7 day 60-80 hour weeks for over 4 decades.

Modern tech jobs (in the era of free money, which may be ending) have really put a clamp on long hours. Tech jobs were notorious for long hours until recently where it has flipped, and they are known for comfy work/life balance approach.

Do you consider yourself a victim? Holding the titles of director and principal means you used your position to reinforce this pattern, no?

I generally work in small teams, where I look out and mentor those I work with, rather than work them into the ground as I was.

You could say I consider myself a "Protecting Veteran".

What part was illegal exactly? My legal understanding is that there's no cap on salary working hours, no mandatory vacation or weekends, and a 3-day minimum on paid sick days (in california) .