Maybe it’s my poor grasp of English, but I did not read the balance problem there.
Sure, I could be absolutely mistaken, and he did not mean it like “don’t take a 10 minutes long smoke break every 20 minutes, don’t spend 30 minutes an hour with browsing the net and don’t expect 8 hours of work a day”

In his follow up post he clarified it even more.
Plus, yes, I think a startup is something like the frontline in a war. Everyone working like crazy, trying to “break into the market”.

Now, I have to confess some facts about me, before people label me a “slavedriver”.

1) I spent 4 months working 13+ hours each day, plus weekends as a developer.
2) Since then, I positively avoid unnecessary, useless overtime.
3) I know that working 10+ hours each day is not the most effective thing in the long run.
4) Maybe I am stupid, but I share these views with my “hopefully future employers” during the job interviews. No surprises then.
5) Around here, every established software company works with tons of overtime

I can accept that my view on the workings of startup is screwed by 5).
I expect that startups need a lot more work, both in time, and concentration, energy.
You can win time with concentrating on your work and not spend 1/3rd of the day on the balcony smoking, or browsing the web, and working a few hours in the weekend if necessary.

But maybe, in the more developed part of the world, US, UK, Canada, France, etc., established software companies don’t demand a lot of overtime, and thus startups don’t need total concentration during the work time, and don’t need people whose only goal is to lift that thing off the ground.

He wrote workaholics. But he did not write “dump your family, sell your house and move in the office”.

He wrote about stuff we miss a lot of times – especially the comfortable chair.
And when he changed the post he left the original words there crossed out.

Yikes, it got long.
All in all, I read him with a favourable preconception.
The only thing that really supports my take on his post is the response of one or several of the people working for him. (which was promptly labeled as the ‘fear inspired, brainwashed act of a slave’)

But, if I ever happen to work for him, I will share my experience.

As I’ve argued everywhere, balance isn’t a bad thing (and he still thinks ppl who want balance should work at starbucks…unless he’s changed the post yet again). You can work hard and have some balance.

here it is

Erm.. I don’t want to be rude or something, but did you read what Calacanis wrote?

I mean, he *explicitly* wrote down that he *did not* mean what you write here.
And I read the whole post and he *did not* write such things there.
Quite the opposite.

“In fact, some of the most productive folks on staff have families, spend tons of time with them, and ARE workaholics. It seems to me that folks with families somehow get much more focused and do more in less time, or find strange hours to work. I can’t explain it (anyone with kids want to check in?!).”

If you want Duncan, I can give you the links, so you can read the posts.