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The Risk of Working Hard

ben.casnocha.com

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Re: The Risk of Working Hard

#11

Post by Shenglong »

In the school setting that he's giving the example in, I see it like this (on a personal level):

On a 4.0 scale here in Canada, 90+ is a 4.0. This means regardless of whether you get a 90 or a 100, you still end up with the same GPA.

I make an explicit effort not to get above or under 90. 91 and 92 is unavoidable at times, but when I get a 98 or 100, I feel like I've just wasted a bunch of time. If I didn't study much, I shouldn't have studied at all. If I didn't study at all, I probably should have gone to the exam late, etc.

In an ordinary context, I think a lot of us understand the balance between reward and effort. And of course, reward tends to come with diminishing returns as a function of effort. I really think that's the reason we all don't try very hard for everything.

...Unless there's a lot of money involved... then it's different.

Re: The Risk of Working Hard

#12

Post by richcollins »

In other words, if you work hard and fail, there's the presumption that you're innately not very talented.

Work by its definition is something that you don't enjoy doing. The real risk is that you spend a lot of time doing something that you don't enjoy when you could have been working less and enjoying yourself more.

Re: The Risk of Working Hard

#13

Post by mitcheme »

Shenglong wrote: post #11

In the school setting that he's giving the example in, I see it like this (on a personal level): On a 4.0 scale here in Canada, 90+ is a 4.0. This means regardless of whether you get a 90 or a 100, you still end up with the same GPA. I make an explicit effort not to get above or under 90. 91 and 92 is unavoidable at times, but when I get a 98 or 100, I feel like I've just wasted a bunch of time. If I didn't study muc…

I don't really see the point in making an explicit effort to avoid doing meaningful work. If your GPA is really the only reward you're getting in all of your classes, maybe you're going to the wrong school. Sure, I lazed off in Computing Ethics because it was a total joke (easy A, unqualified prof, poor course design). But I definitely got more than a letter grade out of my classes on algorithms, GUI design, best development practices, etc. For the courses with real value, I might as well get as close to 100% of that value as I can, even if I only get `credit` for the first 90%. Maybe it's just because I come from a working class family, but it seems so wasteful to throw that last 10% away on purpose. (University doesn't have a lot of money involved...?) Yeah you can learn it later in your own time, but why not just learn it right away and spend that time later diving deeper or exploring other areas?

Re: The Risk of Working Hard

#15

Post by [deleted] »

Shenglong wrote: post #11

In the school setting that he's giving the example in, I see it like this (on a personal level): On a 4.0 scale here in Canada, 90+ is a 4.0. This means regardless of whether you get a 90 or a 100, you still end up with the same GPA. I make an explicit effort not to get above or under 90. 91 and 92 is unavoidable at times, but when I get a 98 or 100, I feel like I've just wasted a bunch of time. If I didn't study muc…

[deleted]

Re: The Risk of Working Hard

#16

Post by ChuckMcM »

spaghetti wrote: post #10

I'll put a positive spin on this: Replace "fail" with "not successful yet". Replace "not talented" with "not as skilled as I will eventually be". Now working hard uncovers weaknesses and things to improve.

I tend to think that value is measured in failure.

I know that I tried to teach this to my kids. That failure isn't a judgement its a result. Learn and re-attempt. If you fail several times then succeed it feels (to me at least) much better having succeeded than just succeeding right off the bat.

The place where this gets dicey is the test scenario where you have only 'one chance'. When its possible to do test runs that you can fail at and practice it seems to help.

Re: The Risk of Working Hard

#17

Post by spaghetti »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16
spaghetti wrote: post #10

I'll put a positive spin on this: Replace "fail" with "not successful yet". Replace "not talented" with "not as skilled as I will eventually be". Now working hard uncovers weaknesses and things to improve.

I tend to think that value is measured in failure. I know that I tried to teach this to my kids. That failure isn't a judgement its a result. Learn and re-attempt. If you fail several times then succeed it feels (to me at least) much better having succeeded than just succeeding right off the bat. The place where this gets dicey is the test scenario where you have only 'one chance'. When its possible to do test runs t…

I agree. What you wrote helped me remember a useful saying: "you always pass failure on your way to success."
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