‘Rest Is a Deprecated Feature,’ Founder Codes 30 Hours Straight on Planes — Here’s How Frequent Flyers Actually Work

A Twitter account that curates venture capital humblebrags surfaced a pair of screenshots from a 24-year-old “tech founder” describing his recent 30-hour journey from the U.S. to Saigon.

• He explains that most people “paid for a flight,” but he “paid for a 30-hour mobile office in the air.” While his friend slept, he coded. He claims he ran the “ROI of sleeping on a 30-hour flight,” decided sleep would “depreciate the asset,” and instead turned the time into “three new features.”

• He then announces that “rest is a legacy feature I had deprecated,” that “work is rest,” and that “founders are just built different.”

This is insane and cringe and you’d assume parody but nah?

Chill on a long flight and watch a movie or sleep?

Nahhh, I gotta let you know I'm wwwooorrrkkkkinnggg and you're not pic.twitter.com/ljcwtzpPLb

— VCs Congratulating Themselves (@VCBrags) November 17, 2025

Commenters wondered whether he was trolling or high. One suggested he should focus on “deprecating his virginity.” Others insisted this had to be satire, because no one could type that seriously outside of a parody of hustle culture.

And yet… I get it. Travel time can be great productive time.

I work in the airport. I work in the lounge. I work on the plane. I work in Ubers. I choose flights around wifi quality. I only watch shows when I’m too tired to keep my eyes on a screen full of text. If I’m not working, I feel guilty. It’s a personality flaw, but it’s also a system that lets me travel as much as I do and still get things done.

Long-time readers know that,

• I write all of the posts on this blog myself. There are no other contributors. (I can count on two hands the number of guest posts I’ve run in 23 years – they’ve offered truly unique additions in my view.)

• This isn’t my only job. You might call it my side hustle. I still have a full-time job.

• And I have a number of side projects and consulting gigs.

So there’s always more to do. My days start super early (before anyone else in the house wakes up) and there’s work every day. But I still try to find real balance, and make sure I’m carving out plenty of time for my kids. And since I guard that time jealously, I can’t allow for inefficiencies when I’m getting work done. By being hyper-focused I can accomplish what I need to, and not have it creep into family time.

Planes Are Great For Some Work, Terrible For Other Work

An airplane can be a decent office, if you match the work to the environment. You’re in a constrained space. You have uncertain connectivity and uncertain access to power. There’s background noise, interruptions, and seatmates.

It’s not the place to work on confidential materials, even with a screen protector. And accessing systems that require your phone for two factor authentication aren’t ideal.

It’s a great time to clear email, answer short messages, and read documents. Take first passes at writing. And you’ve got a long block of time where nobody can knock on your office door.

You have to assume that the wifi can fail and that the seat power won’t work (even if you bring a UK-style adapter to hold the plug into the socket).

Your seat also matters. I’m fine in exit row aisle. I need extra legroom coach at a minimum, not because I’m tall but so I can work with laptop screen open.

How To Prepare To Work On A Plane

Start before you leave home. Charge everything. Bring a power bank. Download enough to work if wifi isn’t working well – documents, email, whatever you plan to read. Know what you’ll do if you can’t get online.

Choose your flights carefully. I’ll favor Delta and American over United and Southwest because the wifi generally works better. United’s wifi is going to be great once Starlink rolls out – it’ll be at the top of the industry (Alaska is moving to Starlink, also). But for now it’s unreliable. And Southwest’s is worst. Now that they don’t charge that adds a lot of demand onto subpar systems.

Know your aircraft. American has been rolling out high speed wifi across regional jets before the air to ground service those had gets retired. I used to avoid regional jets on American because it was like not having wifi at all. Now I don’t, though the conversions aren’t all done.

Here’s someone working off two laptops, with an empty middle seat.

This is a new one…
byu/NationalIngenuity420 inunitedairlines

Here’s a passenger flying American Airlines Flagship First class with an external keyboard and second monitor.

Latest airplane travel rig … laptop stand, (no levitation involved), keyboard, mouse, screen, power bank. And the @AmericanAir swivel seat 🙂 pic.twitter.com/IXKY4MsVPe

— Bhavin Turakhia (@bhavintu) November 29, 2023

And here’s a Spirit Airlines passenger with 20 inch monitor, and keyboard strapped to his knees.

Imagine you’re on a plane and guy next to you busts out a 3 foot tall PC monitor and straps on his keypad kneepads https://t.co/D8RiY2goPP

— ⟠Palis⟠ (@palis) October 24, 2025

Pick an aisle seat ideally. And avoid bulkhead if there’s no floor storage in front of you – you want access to your laptop right away to start working once you’re in the air.

When To Stop Working

At some point after a long flight of work, that followed a long day of work, that followed several nights with less than stellar sleep on the road, your brain turns to mush. Your back and neck may hate you from the coach seat you’re in.

You’re not longer “creating alpha.” You are typing slower, thinking worse, and stacking errors you’ll need to fix on the ground, if you remember. Sleep is no longer “depreciating an asset.” It is basic maintenance.

If you’re not in a position to sleep, that’s at least the time to turn off and watch something mindless to pass the time. I will have a few movies and shows on my laptop, even if I rarely get to the point of watching them. What you need to work more at this point is sleep, though.

Work-Sleep-Work On Long Haul

If I know I’m going to be less productive on a long haul flight, or wifi will be questionable, I try to schedule it over a weekend. That way I’m at least missing less important connected time.

I also know that overnight hours are times when I can be sleeping. I’ll work at the start of a flight, or at least in a lounge prior to a late departure. Then I’ll eat and rest, and pick back up after a few hours. I’ll be better able to work since I’m somewhat rested, and it’s closer to when the rest of the world is getting up.

I love this work time, though, because there are fewer incoming demands. You can spend it reading long-form material, writing, and thinking. It can be some of your most productive time, if you let it be.