I think a general theme in life is that planning (and being able to do the work required of it) gets rewarded much more than how much effort is required to do s

I think a general theme in life is that planning (and being able to do the work required of it) gets rewarded much more than how much effort is required to do something. A few more examples of the phenomena: * Trying to do something physical as an overweight and unfit person vs. someone who has already gotten into shape. * Finding a job when you have a strong professional network vs. finding a job when you don't. * Performing some computer operation multiple times manually vs. using/maintaining a script that was already written. In all of the above cases, you're going to put in more work in the situation that required less planning while getting rewarded less.