Why does Steve Huynh say hard work can lower your performance rating?

Steve Huynh argues that exceptional output quickly becomes the baseline. If your sustainable pace is two projects a quarter and you push to three by working nights, your manager sees only three and expects it again; returning to two then looks like decline. He says this is how people have their hardest year and still get a meets-expectations rating, and he recommends sprints only when they have a clear end.

• Huynh says Peter Yang quit a high-paying Roblox job after realizing he did not want his boss's life.
• Huynh suggests asking whether you would take the exact life of someone two levels above you tomorrow.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on A Life Engineered (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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