This depends enormously on where you're working and what you're optimizing for. "Deceiving yourself" is far too strong: people can easily tell how many hours they're working and whether they're expected to be continuously available.
I have two small kids, so it's important to me that I have a lot of time outside of work. Typically I'm up at 7am, get them ready, bring them to school, get to work ~8:30, leave work ~4:50, kids down ~8:30, bed ~10. I rarely check email outside of work or work in the evenings (only when there's something I'm working on that I'm super excited about) and there's no pressure at all to work more hours than this. I'm not on call.
Not all tech jobs are like this, and I'm lucky I've found one that is a good fit for me, but work-life balance is totally possible.
I have two small kids, so it's important to me that I have a lot of time outside of work. Typically I'm up at 7am, get them ready, bring them to school, get to work ~8:30, leave work ~4:50, kids down ~8:30, bed ~10. I rarely check email outside of work or work in the evenings (only when there's something I'm working on that I'm super excited about) and there's no pressure at all to work more hours than this. I'm not on call.
Not all tech jobs are like this, and I'm lucky I've found one that is a good fit for me, but work-life balance is totally possible.