“ There's a faint xor between talent and hard work.”
I love this techie yet insightful quote.
How to Work Hard
111–120 of 1001 posts
Re: How to Work Hard
#112Long, Hard, Smart - pick 2 out of 3.
Re: How to Work Hard
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
He probably didn't treat those as "work" as we laymen understand. We just work for bread and butter and most of the time workis kind of boring. But if you happen to work for yourself or enjoy your work for whatever the reason, you don't treat it as "work" and it's all about achieving the maximum happiness as you can. I expereinced this a few times in my life and I never regretted about working hard on it. Why would I…
This is it. When you’re working on things you love, it’s hard, and can be lots of hours, but it doesn’t feel like work. Speaking from my own experience of founding a startup. There are also times it was absolutely miserable. But it’s true: I wasn’t beholden to my VCs or angels. I could have quit. I just enjoyed the work so much, so deeply, that I didn’t want to quit. The challenge was not burning out: I needed to tak…
Yeah exactly. The trick is to not burn out early. I usually got burned out when I figured out the core (perhaps 20% of the work) and needed many days to grind out the final results, which I did not have the perserverance to complete. This is probably my worst shortcoming of life and I still can't get rid of it when I'm approaching 40.
It seems that the only way for me to finish something is to have the task coming from _someone else_, from a friend or from work.
Re: How to Work Hard
#114Hard work can be good, but only if you own a substantial capital interest in the company/result. But if you can hire people to do it for you, then you can reap the benefits and live a life worth living. If you are just part of the labor and not the capital, then there really isn't an incentive to work harder than necessary to keep you job or earn a measly raise. If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in…
> If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in their 20s that they would be millionaires or billionaires Billionaire isn’t a realistic goal, but millionaire is a common outcome for software developers who work hard through their 20s and 30s now. It doesn’t even require a FAANG job or living in a super expensive city any more, just wise job selection, a reasonable amount of financial savvy and budget adhere…
Not common. As in, strictly less than half.
Re: How to Work Hard
#115Hard work can be good, but only if you own a substantial capital interest in the company/result. But if you can hire people to do it for you, then you can reap the benefits and live a life worth living. If you are just part of the labor and not the capital, then there really isn't an incentive to work harder than necessary to keep you job or earn a measly raise. If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in…
> If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in their 20s that they would be millionaires or billionaires Billionaire isn’t a realistic goal, but millionaire is a common outcome for software developers who work hard through their 20s and 30s now. It doesn’t even require a FAANG job or living in a super expensive city any more, just wise job selection, a reasonable amount of financial savvy and budget adhere…
>just wise job selection, a reasonable amount of financial savvy and budget adherence, and a deliberate effort to work on your career path
The "just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You seem to be saying that privileged people become successful, which is kind of a tautology.
Re: How to Work Hard
#116Hard work can be good, but only if you own a substantial capital interest in the company/result. But if you can hire people to do it for you, then you can reap the benefits and live a life worth living. If you are just part of the labor and not the capital, then there really isn't an incentive to work harder than necessary to keep you job or earn a measly raise. If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in…
> If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in their 20s that they would be millionaires or billionaires Billionaire isn’t a realistic goal, but millionaire is a common outcome for software developers who work hard through their 20s and 30s now. It doesn’t even require a FAANG job or living in a super expensive city any more, just wise job selection, a reasonable amount of financial savvy and budget adhere…
> millionaire is a common outcome for software developers who work hard through their 20s and 30s now.
No, it's not. It's common for some FAANG engineers. It's not common at all for the industry as a whole.
Look at all these comments doubling-down on the "7%/$10k-per-year" arithmetic, as if the only thing that affects savings rates is knowledge of this basic math. For a data driven community there sure are a lot of people ignoring the data.
Re: How to Work Hard
#117Hard work can be good, but only if you own a substantial capital interest in the company/result. But if you can hire people to do it for you, then you can reap the benefits and live a life worth living. If you are just part of the labor and not the capital, then there really isn't an incentive to work harder than necessary to keep you job or earn a measly raise. If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in…
>If you tell people that if they work 12+ hours a day in their 20s that they would be millionaires
In software development this is a realistic goal if you play your cards right. Plenty of other careers too.
I think there's also statistical data to support this as well (hours worked early on increasing your income and net worth down the line).
Working hard early on in your career does pay off.
Re: How to Work Hard
#118The true ah-ha moment comes when you finally realize how much bullshit this is. "Hard work" is the mantra that keeps you a slave. "Success stories" are the tasty carrots that keep you toiling away your best years enriching others in pursuit of the things you're supposed to seek in life: Power, success, status. "Life hacks" are little dopamine hits to keep your eye on the carrot. And the kicker is that those few who a…
I didn’t really interpret the essay that way. I think the essay applies as much to working hard on personal things, like becoming better at playing some instrument or painting better. Both of those take a lot of hard work, but it has nothing to do with ”toiling away your best years enriching others”.
Re: How to Work Hard
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd go a step further and it sounds woefully disconnected from the joys of culture and life. For those it works for, I imagine that this seems satisfying but for the rest who work hard and don't hit acclaim and fortune (or at least not wild acclaim and fortune), they're going to have midlife crises when they realized they itemized away their youth... I'd guess.
The thing that most people seem to be missing is PG isn’t advocating for working hard just to work hard. He’s advocating for working hard at things that you love, because then it doesn’t feel like work. He is also glorifying anxiety, which is unfortunate, and I think this essay stands stronger without those particular points.
But "working hard at things that you love" isn't much of a challenge. Your motivation is already there, and your simply overcoming a lack of skills or knowledge.
What's difficult, and more common amongst mere mortals is twofold; trying to find motivation to overcome difficult things, and learning the skills and expertise to accomplish these things. Love for those things isn't really a factor.
Graham really is trying to simplify things a bit too much, and recycling the tropes of natural ability, practice and effort.
Re: How to Work Hard
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is it. When you’re working on things you love, it’s hard, and can be lots of hours, but it doesn’t feel like work. Speaking from my own experience of founding a startup. There are also times it was absolutely miserable. But it’s true: I wasn’t beholden to my VCs or angels. I could have quit. I just enjoyed the work so much, so deeply, that I didn’t want to quit. The challenge was not burning out: I needed to tak…
Yeah exactly. The trick is to not burn out early. I usually got burned out when I figured out the core (perhaps 20% of the work) and needed many days to grind out the final results, which I did not have the perserverance to complete. This is probably my worst shortcoming of life and I still can't get rid of it when I'm approaching 40. It seems that the only way for me to finish something is to have the task coming fr…
I resonate with this completely. For me, it’s largely a result of ADHD. My solution has always been to partner with “finishers.”
I’m a spectacular starter, prototyper, and builder. But I cannot complete the damn project for the life of me. My best friend and first employee though? Thrives on that.