This told essay is based on a conversation with. Mickey Down and Conrad Kay, two former bankers He is the creator and co-showrunner of HBO’s “Industry.” The series, currently in its fourth season, follows a group of bankers who party hard and scheme in London. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mickey down: Conrad and I are deep into Season 1 of “Industry.” It’s quite green. In other words, it’s completely green. We had no experience. We’ve probably been on set once before, and it was a movie we made. And now we were running a pretty big TV show with a lot of collaborators, many of whom had been doing this for many years longer than we had. It was kind of intimidating.

As a result, I think our defaults can be a little too micromanaging. It’s because you’re afraid that you won’t be able to convey what you want. This was bad communication in another sense.

I’ve noticed that your attitude as a person in charge permeates the entire ecosystem of your work. The head will rot, and it will become glorious from above. So if you come to work with an incredibly good attitude, thinking it’s going to be a great day, being nice to people and appreciating all the things a leader should be, that’s all that will make people do their best work.

Conrad Kay: Four seasons in, I think we’ve learned to be really good delegators now. We’ve assembled such a high level of talent that one of the things that’s most gratifying is that they’ve thought about this show so much more deeply than we ever thought possible.

Become self-aware and confident do not have Be paranoid about every aspect of the show. Even though a lot of this stuff happens through me and Mickey’s typewriters when writing, and through our eyes when editing and producing, empowering people and letting them go a little bit has really improved the quality of the show.

We would like to introduce a typical day for those of us working in “industry”.

Shooting starts early and sometimes it starts late, so I take in caffeine.

under: Since there are many split shots, I shoot during the day and at night. But to be honest, even if I’m on Split, I wake up at 6:30 or 7 in the morning. This is terrible because I could finish shooting at 2am and drive home and wake up at 7am.

But that’s because there’s a lot of adrenaline going on while filming. It’s a marathon, but I’m running pretty fast the whole time.

Kay: My alarm goes off at 7am on average. If I’m not drinking and getting a lot of magnesium, I’ll be honest: I have a hard time falling asleep after 6am. My body just wakes up. And I’m too worried to go back to sleep.

under: I’ve never been a morning person. Now that I have two children, alarm bells are ringing within the company. I haven’t set an alarm for years. This is because if my children wake me up or I am away from them for filming, my children’s body clock will wake me up.

I try to avoid coffee as much as possible now because when I’m on set, everything goes to waste. So I eat one cup before I go to work, one cup as soon as I wake up, then one cup before lunch, and that’s it for the day.

Kay: I drink an unhealthy amount of coffee. The cheaper the better, but you want it to taste like mud. I love Dunkin Donuts. I drink at least 6 or 7 cups a day.

under: Then you might ask, “Why can’t I sleep?”

Surviving on Skittles and Oreos on set

Kay: In general, I’m pretty routine. My main thing is really coffee. I take industrial doses simply because I like the flavor and it keeps me alert. But I like Red Bull for weight loss. I like Sour Skittles. I like chewing gum. I like green apples. Mickey and I know when Sam, my assistant, is going to bring us a Diet Coke just by looking at him.

under: He was very good at sneaking into the stately homes where we were filming and bringing in food, sneaking in Skittles and custard and Oreos.

I often eat it on set. We had a McDonald’s on set last week, and I think that was probably the highlight of the whole production, including all the filming. But I always lose weight after filming. Because you’re standing up and running around, your heart rate increases by an order of magnitude.

Exercise and bathing multiple times a day are part of our self-care routine

Kay: I like to exercise quite a bit. I got sick about a year and a half ago and lost so much weight that I remember people looking at me while I was in the hospital and thinking, “Damn, if I look like that in their eyes, I must look terrible.” So I decided to start going to the gym.

under: I may sound like Lord Fauntleroy when I write this, but when I stay at a hotel, I always have to take a bath.

One time, I received an email saying, “Unfortunately, this hotel does not meet Mickey’s specifications.” It wasn’t a very nice hotel, but I liked baths so I just had to take a bath. It calms me down a lot.

Sometimes it’s 3 pieces a day. Of course this is not a set. Because you can’t do that when you’re on set. But there’s one in the morning, and if you work from home, there’s probably one around 4 p.m. And if you’re going out that night, you have to eat one more drink before you go out. When I get home before it’s late, I’ll eat before going to bed.

Perhaps that’s why I’m late to everything.

I try to disconnect my phone at home, but Duolingo is on between takes.

Kay: My cell phone is the bane of my life, really. I’m a terrible phone addict. I literally have to put it in another room and even then it only lasts about 10 minutes.

That’s why I’m so worried about it that I’m trying to do something about it, because it’s eating up quite a few years of my life at this point.

under: There are obviously some incredibly exciting moments on movie sets. I often laze around, so between takes I sometimes try to learn French on Duolingo. Obviously that didn’t work.

I think everyone has a severe phone addiction. It should also be placed in a separate room, especially when you are with children. There are times in the evening when you have to be sure to leave the kids downstairs when you take them to bed, give them a bath, and read a book. Because even if I am fully engaged with them and it is in me, I feel my hand reaching towards it. So I make sure it’s not there.

But I don’t really mind having my phone out on set as long as it doesn’t interfere with my focus on the moment with the director and actors. I think it would be a good idea to take a look at your smartphone.

Kay: Chris Nolan would absolutely hate coming to our set.

We love to go to bed early and don’t party like the characters in “Industry”

Kay: Mickey looks at me and laughs. I go to bed earlier than his 5-year-old daughter. So I love my bed and I love my sleep. The thought of going out on a weekday night makes me feel sick. I want to be in bed by 8 o’clock and sleep by 9 or 9:30. Really late for me is around 10:30 or 11:00.

I’m good at taking sleep supplements and such. To be honest, as someone who drinks coffee as much as I do, I sleep pretty deep and undisturbed. The only thing is, when I’m awake, I’m awake.

under: You must sleep for at least 7 hours. I aim to be in bed at 9 o’clock, but then something happens in my life and I end up going to bed around 10-10.

I read a lot more nonfiction than I used to. Sometimes it was for the show, sometimes it wasn’t. I read a lot of history, including thick books. Really helps with sleep. I’m also taking a bath.

Kay: The thing is, we can do all the cocaine and partying vicariously through fiction. So we’re like two elderly 65-year-old women now. Tea, toast and a bath are what we’re all about.

“Industry” Season 4 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.