Waking up early

Many people associate waking up early with productivity, as we can see from "the early bird gets the worm" and other such assorted statements. Personally I have always felt that this was garbage, as I am more productive later in the day, why not wake later and work till later? If the total number of hours spent working is the same, and equal concentration is given during those hours, is not the aggregate productivity on par?

Having defended my tribe of late-wakers, I shall now attempt to analyze why people who wake up early are seen as more hardworking.

For most of human history, we have labored without the assistance of electrical lighting, hence people would rise at dawn to work and stop work at dusk. After-dusk hours were mainly for recreation. This strong historical inertia makes us feel that if one wakes up late, several hours of could-be productivity have been sacrificed in the morning, while sleeping later only means that one spends more time on enjoyment, e.g. clubbing or surfing the net or whatever.

This is why when I work late at night I make sure to send out emails to people so that they KNOW I am working.