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How to Work Hard

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Work Hard

#311

Post by luffapi »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #167
giantg2 wrote: post #44

Hard 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…

> then you can reap the benefits and live a life worth living I wish we could make the "inequality" point without resorting to hyperbole like this. The median American lives a life that is the envy of 99.9% percent of people who have ever walked this earth including most monarchs and emperors, and certainly >90% of people alive today. I do agree that something needs to be done to keep inequality in check; I just happ…

I really don’t think 99.9% of people want to pay 1K /month for health insurance or be a missed paycheck away from living on the street. Americans make a lot of money but the cost of living is through the roof and there is practically no safety net. That’s not even touching on our complete lack of social and family support structures.

Re: How to Work Hard

#312

Post by aroundtown »

It is too common to see the well off capitalists extol the virtues of hard work, usually as a means unto itself, ignoring the reward.

They often say, you peasants could be like me if only you understood how to work hard, while completely ignoring the fact that not everybody is fairly compensated for their hard work.

I wish I was in such a good position that I could spend 5 hours a day writing about whatever self-indulgent topics I'm feeling while being able to pat myself on the back and call it a hard days work.

Re: How to Work Hard

#313

Post by cherrycherry98 »

tgtweak wrote: post #188

This rhetoric furthered by Elon, Jack Ma and several others where working 7 days a week for 18 hours is "ideal" and that rest and relaxation are had at the expense of productivity/success is a real dangerous position. You know what happens to the majority of people when they get to a state of anxiety when relaxing and not working? Stress and burnout. Let's acknowledge that it may have been the path to success for SOM…

Some people do enjoy their work and can be said to live for it. Marissa Mayer had an interesting take that burnout wasn't necessarily about working too much but resentment that they'd rather be spending more time on something else (like family). To paraphrase a similar view someone once told me: there's no such thing as work/life balance, it's all just life.

That being said I think it's easier to live to work if you feel that your efforts are going to yield greater results. Putting time into study to get good grades and learn new skills, anticipating that this will yield better job opportunities? Sure! Working long hours on my startup that is taking off and could make me rich? Great! Having to work long hours and skip vacations to finish a project in a salaried corporate job? That'll burn you out because you're not directly benefitting from the sacrifice, which probably leads to some resentment towards your employer.

Re: How to Work Hard

#314

Post by watwut »

romanhn wrote: post #262
ryandrake wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Working hard in the mailroom or stocking shelves at a grocery store isn’t going to translate into a successful software career Equally, working hard as a software engineer isn't going to translate into the "uncapped salary" class of employment like CEO/CTO, VP, Founder, etc. There's a class ceiling where only a certain type of person gains entry. You can hard-work yourself to the bone writing code, but that "VP of…

This has nothing to do with class, similar to how declining a junior engineer for an architect role is not classist. A VP Engineering role is a senior management position, and being a fantastic programmer is not a reasonable transition point. It's a lot more reasonable to either make a lateral hire or promote internally from a lower level (say, Director). Tiny startups take more chances with whom they place into thes…

But that is not argument against what he said. All software engineers cant be VPs. It is not possible - there are not enough positions and many people are not suitable for that role.

If everyone worked super hard, still only minority would got these positions.

Re: How to Work Hard

#315

Post by user22 »

helen___keller wrote: post #162

When I was an undergrad at CMU, I learned how to work hard. Really hard. After having coasted through too-easy high school, I spent all day every day at CMU either programming, doing mathematics, or thinking about one of those things (to great effect: often the trick to prove a theorem would pop into my head while showering or while taking a walk). I would fall asleep while programming in the middle of the night, dre…

Thanks for writing this. What you wrote describes me perfectly with the exception of the redemption at the end.

Re: How to Work Hard

#316

Post by fulafel »

leokennis wrote: post #19

> There are three ingredients in great work: natural ability, practice, and effort. You can do pretty well with just two, but to do the best work you need all three: you need great natural ability and to have practiced a lot and to be trying very hard. I'd like to add that it is more than fine to not do great work. If you like to spend a lot of time with your kids and tend to your vegetable patch, by all means only t…

There's a lot of spectrum between "only try hard enough to keep the job" and PG described "great work" in many tech jobs, and indeed most tech people are somewhere in the middle.

Re: How to Work Hard

#317

Post by nineplay »

One of my greatest regrets is how much time I wasted on 'work' in my 20s and 30s. I was an engineer, I made a comfortable salary, but I rarely took a vacation, I never traveled outside the UI, I took days off reluctantly with a vague feeling that I was letting someone down.

"Later", I told myself. When I'm successful, when I'm stable, when I have the money to travel in style and not backpack around and stay at hostels. Then I can take a break and have the adventures I want.

My in-laws confirmed this attitude for me - they retired in their 50s and traveled the world. What a great life goal!

Guess what, life happened. Health issues. I'm never going to travel the world. All that time in my 20s in 30s - I was healthy, I was happy, I was carefree, and I didn't appreciate it and threw all that time away sitting at a desk looking at a screen. Today, now, that's about the only thing I'm fit to do.

Don't listen to PG, kids. Live the life you want to have now, not the life you think you'll want to have several decades out.

Re: How to Work Hard

#318

Post by SlapperKoala »

nicholast wrote: post #3

I know this is somewhat of a false dichotomy, but at some point I think PG's essays started to shift from being directed at startup founders to giving advice to his children that they can read when they grow older.

I feel like a lot of it is the same stuff that you get in generic self help books, but explained in contemporary techie language and cultural references.

Not that that is necessarily bad per se, there can be a lot lot of value to reminding people of things that may seem obvious. But it's annoying when people treat him like a genius for saying fairly standard platitudes in a clever way

Re: How to Work Hard

#319

Post by manacit »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #286

This is the trait that I have found in successful people around me: > The most basic level of which is simply to feel you should be working without anyone telling you to. > Now, when I'm not working hard, alarm bells go off. I can't be sure I'm getting anywhere when I'm working hard, but I can be sure I'm getting nowhere when I'm not, and it feels awful. How does one cultivate this feeling?

Have an anxiety disorder and a fear of failure - you'll always be worried that by not working, you are going to fall behind or something bad is going to happen.

I say this partly tongue-in-cheek, but I don't think it's altogether incorrect. Having a compulsion to work to the level of 'alarm bells' going off doesn't sound like fun to me.

Re: How to Work Hard

#320

Post by ambicapter »

helen___keller wrote: post #162

When I was an undergrad at CMU, I learned how to work hard. Really hard. After having coasted through too-easy high school, I spent all day every day at CMU either programming, doing mathematics, or thinking about one of those things (to great effect: often the trick to prove a theorem would pop into my head while showering or while taking a walk). I would fall asleep while programming in the middle of the night, dre…

"My heart is in the work" indeed.
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