I don't understand what kind of job, except for some very, very fringe cases like a NASA active mission or an atomic threat, would require a person to pull all-nighters. And how is that productive in the long-term? It's not exactly easy to hire talent.
People who enforce 996 or whatever other schedule are treating the symptom and not the cause.
What they really want is for all of their employees to be so in love with the work, so bought into the mission and so compelled by the vision that they want to work until late.
Of course building a company that inspires that is actually very difficult (though is possible for sure) so it’s easier just to enforce a crazy and unproductive schedule.
I have not pulled an all nighter proper (the worst was going to sleep at 6 and waking up at 7:30), but working late into the night is usually distraction free. During work hours, I feel obligated to quickly respond to coworker's emails and help requests, so most of my own work is worthless during that time unless it’s the equivalent of updating a config file
There are certain things, being an elite athlete, a movie director (and a lot of the key talent), a team that makes a really great video game, a medical resident, where you are going to be competing against people willing to make incredible sacrifices for success including long hours and sacrifices of their personal life.
I agree celebrating regular workers putting in crazy hours is a terrible idea. It shouldn't be the norm, but it is also something that some people will reasonably choose to do.
College trains people for this. Basically anything with strict deadlines. Most of my coursework was done at the latest possible time, in the early hours of the morning. I think these workplaces just carry over that vibe.
College does a terrible job of training you for anything like a startup; it's a marathon game, unlike the 12-16 week semester sprint. What you do in the most "polished" college project is like < 25% of what goes into a marketable software product.
