Four days ago, on September 25 (9-to-5, if you will), cities and states across the country celebrated Dolly Parton Day – a calendrical nod to “9 to 5,” her anthem about working life. ("Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living.")
In the same spirit, Colorado AI News is hereby declaring today, September 29, AI Enthusiasts Day. The hours, naturally, are 9 to 9. But it's more complicated than that.
Consider it an entirely unofficial holiday for those working on something big in AI. After all, you begin each morning reading about a new model, spend lunch watching an AI agent complete a task that agents couldn’t complete two weeks ago, and finish the evening discovering that yet another startup just raised hundreds of millions while you were eating dinner.
AI is supposed to save us time, and it certainly does. But then it makes an entirely new list of projects seem possible. The tool saves an hour; the brain responds by inventing three more hours of work.
When work means something
That sounds like a complaint, but it's also part of the challenge. Many AI enthusiasts keep returning to their screens because the field is genuinely thrilling, offering once-in-a-generation (or maybe, once-in-a-millennium) opportunities. An AI tool does something today that seemed impossible six months ago; an idea that once required a staff can suddenly be tested by one person. Curiosity has its own overtime policy. (It's never "off the clock" for those of us who are innately curious, is it?)
Passion for work is a really good thing. For entrepreneurs, and for people working inside mission-driven organizations, a job can offer far more than a paycheck. It can provide purpose, community, and the chance to build something that matters. Feeling that way about work can become a difference-maker across a career and a life.
But that opportunity is not evenly distributed, and no one should be judged for taking a job primarily to pay the bills. And yet...when passion is present, it deserves to be valued rather than treated automatically as evidence that someone needs better boundaries.
Psychologists draw a useful distinction between harmonious passion and obsessive passion. Harmonious passion grows from choice: The work matters deeply while still fitting alongside health, relationships and other parts of life. Obsessive passion feels more like compulsion.
Just for the record, research has linked harmonious passion with greater work satisfaction and less conflict, while obsessive passion is associated with greater conflict and burnout.
The difference is not necessarily how late someone works. It's whether the work enriches a life or consumes it.
When 9 to 9 becomes 9-9-6
AI Enthusiasts Day has a darker numerical counterpart. 9-9-6 describes working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, giving its workers 12-hour days and 72-hour workweeks.
The schedule became notorious in China’s tech industry, prompting worker protests and a broader backlash against its human costs. And last year, it migrated to the U.S. Some American AI startups have embraced 996 or advertised similarly extreme expectations, arguing that the speed of the AI race requires extraordinary commitment. In fact, the Washington Post reported that some founders consider the schedule essential during this narrow window in which new companies can still establish themselves.
And while I cannot argue with that view, the irony is hard to miss. In their determination to beat China at AI, some Silicon Valley startups have imported one of Chinese tech culture’s most notorious practices – one that, by the way, Chinese authorities say “severely violates” the country’s labor law.
A founder and their partners may willingly choose extraordinary hours for themselves when their company feels like a calling. An employee presented with 996 as a condition of employment has far less agency. Mission-driven organizations must also be careful not to treat belief in the cause as permission to claim every available hour.
A culture that equates 72-hour availability with true commitment sidelines parents, caregivers and anyone who cannot – or will not —organize their entire life around work.
What the clock misses
I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that a day that begins before 9 and ends after 9 does not necessarily – indeed, should not – contain 12 hours of continuous labor. It should include a healthy meal or two, compelling conversations, good exercise, and preferably, at least a little time outside. Of course, founders and independent workers often have the freedom to arrange those hours themselves.
Yet, even voluntary overwork carries risks. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization found that working at least 55 hours a week was associated with a 35% greater risk of stroke and a 17% greater risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared with working 35 to 40 hours. A 996 schedule blows past that threshold by another 17 hours.
Passion can supply energy, persistence and satisfaction. Eating well, exercising, getting outside, and good sleep can help sustain those essentials. People pursuing their life’s work still have bodies and brains that require maintenance.
A Colorado answer to 996
Colorado has its own technology culture and no obligation to imitate Silicon Valley’s. Playing Silicon Valley’s little brother – copying its hours to prove our seriousness, or worse, drinking the China/Silicon Valley Kool-Aid unthinkingly – would squander a big part of what makes us different.
At our best, Coloradans pursue ambitious work while leaving room for exercise, sunshine, and good, old-fashioned thinking. Outdoor life is woven into why many people choose to live here, and it can also be particularly valuable to people spending their days staring at screens and mulling over machine learning.
In fact, research suggests that exercising outside may provide benefits beyond the exercise itself. In a 2023 study, participants showed improved measures of attention and working memory after a 15-minute outdoor walk, but not after walking indoors. A 2024 review of 38 studies found that outdoor exercise generally felt more enjoyable than equally intense indoor activity. To be clear, the evidence for additional physiological benefits was inconclusive, but I would suggest that just about everyone could use a few more endorphins these days.
I know how easily work can stretch across the day and even take over all seven days of the week. But I’m also a big believer in exercise, sunshine, compelling conversations – and sleep. Some of my best a-ha moments arrive first thing in the morning, before email and even before coffee. Sleep has apparently continued working on multiple problem after I shut down for the night.
But many of us in Colorado’s AI community still need the reminder. Mountains visible through the window do little good if we never leave the laptop. Walking, cycling, hiking, or simply spending a few minutes outside can create room for an idea that would not arrive during another hour or three of scrolling, prompting or answering email.
No one can keep up with all of AI, and a 72-hour week will not change that. Good judgment increasingly means deciding which developments deserve attention, which ideas are worth pursuing, and what can safely wait until morning. Time outside can help make those choices clearer.
Celebrate responsibly
Fortunately, the Gregorian calendar places some limits on hustle culture. September 29 can become 9-to-9 Day, but a 6-to-12 Day would require June 212. Happily, June has only 30 days.
The calendar has also supplied today’s appropriate beverage, as September 29 just also happens to be National Coffee Day. Personally, I find that extra strong, black coffee is an excellent drink throughout the day.
So, happy AI Enthusiasts Day. Find work worth caring about, bring your full enthusiasm to it, and take care of the person doing it. If a major new model drops at 10:00 tonight, it will still be there in the morning. And you may even understand it better then.
