A 32-year-old programmer in China has allegedly died from overwork, and the circumstances surrounding his death have sparked outrage across the tech industry. According to reports, colleagues added him to work group chats even while he was hospitalized — a detail that has become emblematic of the toxic working conditions that persist in China's tech sector.

The case has reignited debate about the notorious "996" culture — working 9am to 9pm, six days a week — that has plagued Chinese tech companies for years. Despite government crackdowns and public outcry, the pressure to work extreme hours remains deeply embedded in the industry.

But here's what makes this more than just another tragedy in China: it's a warning sign for the entire tech industry. As AI promises to make us more productive, we're facing a fundamental question that no one wants to answer: are we using those productivity gains to work less, or are we just expected to do even more?

I've watched this pattern repeat across every technological leap. Email was supposed to free us from the office. Instead, it meant we could work from anywhere — so we worked everywhere. Slack was meant to improve communication. Now it's a 24/7 expectation machine. AI coding assistants can write boilerplate faster than any human. Great. Now you're expected to ship twice as many features.

The story raises critical questions about what happens when "hustle culture" meets an industry that never sleeps. In Silicon Valley, we dress it up with kombucha on tap and nap pods, but the underlying message is the same: your value is measured in hours logged, bugs fixed, features shipped.

The real tell? Being added to a work chat while hospitalized. That's not a communication tool anymore. That's surveillance. That's the expectation that even illness doesn't exempt you from being available, responsive, productive.

Here's what the tech industry doesn't want to admit: the bottleneck was never human capability. It was always human time and human health. And no amount of productivity software changes the fact that we still need to sleep, eat, and occasionally not be working.

China's "996" culture is extreme, but it's not unique. It's just more honest about what many tech companies expect but won't say out loud. The question isn't whether this could happen elsewhere. The question is whether we're building systems that make it inevitable.