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Sometimes one of the triggers is that it’s hard, and if it’s a hard thing you have to regularly do, you should be looking to find a way to do it easier. Otherw

Sometimes one of the triggers is that it’s hard, and if it’s a hard thing you have to regularly do, you should be looking to find a way to do it easier. Otherwise it becomes a suck-it-up-and-just-do-it strategy, which is a fine when used reasonably, but it too can be exhausted as a strategy. But anyway, all of our tools and progress flys in the face of the author’s suggestion. We are at this point in society because we put a lot of thought into not having to work hard. The irony of working hard to not work hard.

cseleborg 6y ago
I think it's worth distinguishing between hard work (working long hours), rote work (doing lots of menial work) and challenging work (important work that requires attention/concentration). I agree with you that rote work should be minimized with better tools and processes. I can delegate the bookkeeping for example. Hard work seems like a matter of culture. There might be the expectation from your organisation, family, community etc. that working long hours is the only right way of working. But I don't think that's what the author is addresssing here. So that leaves challenging work, like writing, marketing, cold-calling, etc. I should be cold-calling much more for example, but I've become quite proficient in finding excuses not to do it (one of them is that it's illegal here in Germany for my product in many cases). I certainly see the author's point about avoiding the discomfort for these types of activities.
- kd5bjo 6y ago
  Sometimes completely eliminating rote work is a mistake. If there’s a lot of challenging work to be done, doing some rote work can be used to rest some while still staying basically on-task and minimizing context-switching costs.
ImprobableTruth 6y ago
It's not about working hard, but about accepting that it's okay to feel challenged by work. Reducing the amount of work is, of course, great, but unless you completely automate your job it's never going to be always easy.

cseleborg 6y ago

I think it's worth distinguishing between hard work (working long hours), rote work (doing lots of menial work) and challenging work (important work that requires attention/concentration). I agree with you that rote work should be minimized with better tools and processes. I can delegate the bookkeeping for example. Hard work seems like a matter of culture. There might be the expectation from your organisation, family, community etc. that working long hours is the only right way of working. But I don't think that's what the author is addresssing here. So that leaves challenging work, like writing, marketing, cold-calling, etc. I should be cold-calling much more for example, but I've become quite proficient in finding excuses not to do it (one of them is that it's illegal here in Germany for my product in many cases). I certainly see the author's point about avoiding the discomfort for these types of activities.

kd5bjo 6y ago
Sometimes completely eliminating rote work is a mistake. If there’s a lot of challenging work to be done, doing some rote work can be used to rest some while still staying basically on-task and minimizing context-switching costs.

ImprobableTruth 6y ago

It's not about working hard, but about accepting that it's okay to feel challenged by work. Reducing the amount of work is, of course, great, but unless you completely automate your job it's never going to be always easy.