The xAI technician’s 19-hour shift has ignited the internet into a debate about work-life balance and how long working hours are a “recipe for burnout”. However, technician Giri Kuncoro was not complaining.
In a post on X, Kuncoro shared that Thursday was his longest day at work at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company. The technician was more than thrilled to put in those extra hours, saying he’s “never felt more alive.”
“It’s 5:30. I just closed my laptop today after 19 hours of work – the longest so far in xAI. I’ve never felt more alive,” he wrote on X.
Kuncor’s dedicated hours served as a reminder of his boss, Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” approach to work. Musk is a proponent of working long hours and once said that “no one has ever changed the world with 40 hours a week.”
Here’s how netizens reacted:
The xAI technician was criticized by social media users who questioned the health implications of such extreme hours, pointing out that working close to 20 hours was “not healthy”.
“This isn’t flex, 8 hours of sleep and daily exercise will make you more productive than this,” the user said.
Another added: “I’m not healthy, Giri! What did you break that made you stay?”
“Man… I hope you don’t get burned,” another user said.
One netizen said: “19 hours? Doctor says 8 hours of sleep, not 8 hours less than Elon.”
“Until you burn out and need years of life to rebuild your mental capacity and immune system,” another noted.
The user said that Kuncoro gives “the same vibe as the Cybertruck guy who left xAI after 2-3 months”
“Bro running on cortisol and a mission,” another user joked.
However, one user said that the xAI techie wasn’t doing something pre-planned — “I worked 22 hours a day (1-2 hours of solid sleep) for 6 days a week (1 rest day per week), up to 11 weeks. What are you yelling at?” said the user.
Who is Giri Kuncoro?
Giri Kuncoro is a software engineer who works on xAI, according to his personal website. He said the focus of his work is cloud-native infrastructure for AI workloads and LLM delivery.
Previously, Kuncoro worked at TikTok, Gojek and VMware. “I’m also a former CNCF ambassador, founded the Kubernetes community in Indonesia and led the SIG Docs localization group,” he said.
Kuncoro, who currently lives in London, said he has previously lived and worked in Tokyo, Palo Alto, Jakarta, Bangalore and Sydney. “I like to share my work at conferences.”
