In the Roman world, the night was split into four watches. The first watch was easy — the streets still alive, the lamp still warm. The second watch was harder. The third watch was the test.
The third watch ran from midnight to about three in the morning. Most of the city slept. The guards who kept the wall through it weren't on display. There were no observers. The temptation was to drift, to slip, to fail quietly because no one was watching.
And that is the watch the faithful servant kept.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
That single line in Luke 12:38 is the standard we build to. Not the noisy first watch where everyone is paying attention. The third watch — alone, by lamplight, with no audience — and still steady.
The work we make is meant for the hour the rest of the world has forgotten. The shirt you wear when you stand watch over a sleeping family. The card on the desk before the day starts. The Bible you read when no one is keeping you to it.
If a piece of work would not still be doing its job at three in the morning, we do not ship it.
— Thirdwatch Co.