I recently stepped out of a job at a startup where the founders only talked about discipline and hard work and were completely oblivious to the teams motivation. After months of working unsustainable hours, we were making something that no one in the team felt was a market winning product. I appreciate the value of hard work but to shut down the signals which tell you that something ain't working is entirely wrong. I wish people take more time to step back and listen to their thoughts than mindlessly chasing the wrong goals and hiding behind the excuse that they were at least disciplined.
A really big error I've made around "discipline" w/r to software, is thinking that it means locking in all of your time so that you can crunch. It's the first two to four hours of effort, and the first 50% of your days in the month, that are important - when trying to chase after one thing all day every day, diminishing returns set in really quickly and you come out behind in terms of your whole life - unhappy and no better off on the project.
Another hour or two on top can help when the job means you have to communicate with others. But even at a "normal" eight hours, you tend to end up with slack time, which is poisonous to how you treat the job. Discipline means starting consistently and stopping equally consistently. Starting without stopping isn't disciplined, it's desperate.
