That could be the case. But I personally think there's a serious ideological conflict between workplace hours and results.
For example, some high-profile people in my industry admit to what "I've known all along," that they spent on average like 2-3 hours a day actually coding. Some guilt-filled weeks it's more like 0. The rest of the workplace time, they putter around, paying credit card bills, commenting on forums, maybe coding Free Software, etc. But despite that, they apparently get the job done because overall productivity is what counts. Not hours. <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html>
Parts of the industry, particularly gaming, are notorious for "deathmarches"... and I keep hearing that this is largely a macho practice where severe inefficiencies abound. Some people actually seem well suited to crazy hours, but most people?
Admittedly, I don't know many other industries in depth. Andie's comments surprised me, about high-paid lawyers working 8am-11pm, 7 days/week. And I was also surprised to hear (from the wife of Battlestar Galactica's co-developer):
"Have you ever been on a movie set?
"I have, and I have seen some insane working conditions. I have
seen grips and electricians in EXTREMELY dangerous
conditions. Before I was in the union, i worked on non union shows
that shot for 18 hours each day. I have known workers who have
been killed in the execution of their jobs. I have watched crews
getting in their cars at 7am after working all night, to drive
home for two hours. I have know of a couple who have been killed
that way. I have seen actors and extras standing outside soaking
wet in near freezing temperatures or sweltering heat, in dust
storms, for 14 hours. I have seen poor sanitary conditions and not
enough food for people trapped in a distant location. I have
watched the drivers exist day after day on only a few hours sleep,
I have seen members of my team drop from exhaustion as they did
the work of ten people. I have spit up gobs of dirt for days after
shooting in wiondstorms and have been to the hospital after
equipment fell on me becuse we were shooting a film as a hurricane
approached, but the producers wouldn't stop shooting.
"People die and get seriously hurt on film sets every year.
"Never seen a paper cut on set."
<http://forums.scifi.com/index.php?showtopic=2266085&st=0>
That's just fucked up. So I clearly dunno what other peoples' jobs are like. I strongly wish to hear more.
But if the author of _Disciplined Minds_ got job his done well, and was fired for telling the truth about his profession... I kinda view it as an ideologial firing. Writing an honest book which gave me advice I even happened to use last week. I wish more people would do that.
Incidentally, when I worked food service, I never had time to write some book during work. "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." Fastfood people make burger after burger after burger, or repeat phrases like "Would you like fries with that?" And that's probably better than nightmare stories (dunno if they're true) of people whose job entirely consists of making the same cut on the same part of a dead food animal over and over again.
Tayssir