4 ms·

I find the Work Smarter, Not Harder meme a little tiresome. How 'bout this - Work Smarter AND Harder. Focus on outputs as the only thing to brag about. Hours pu

I find the Work Smarter, Not Harder meme a little tiresome. How 'bout this - Work Smarter AND Harder. Focus on outputs as the only thing to brag about. Hours put in rarely impresses anyone of significance. Its about the output. Work Smarter, Not Harder is condescension masked as process advice. The truth of the matter is you need to put in the time (read: harder) to get good at just about anything. Only then is smarter an option, but drop the harder at your peril.

USNetizen 13y ago
The "harder" part actually refers to working harder than you have to to get something done, not the overall level of effort. You could do things manually and inefficiently, i.e. the "harder" way, or you could do it "smarter" and save hours of your time to work on other tasks, thus accomplishing more in the same amount of time or less.
- stickhandle 13y ago
  Understood. My point, probably vague, is two-fold: (1) You need to be good enough at something to recognize smarter. You need to do the work. For most non-trivial efforts, this means harder. (2) Smarter is a process, not a destination. Once you have leveled up to be able to work smarter, not harder you probably need to work harder at something deeper to keep growing.
larrys 13y ago
"I find the Work Smarter, Not Harder meme a little tiresome" Agree. Let's take it one step further. Let's say you want to win the game. And one of the ways you do so is to convince the other players of the game (and business is a game btw) to not work as hard. [1] I see this quite a bit with this meme. People telling other people that they don't have to work hard. [1] This is really the reverse of the mindgame that the US military plays with all those really cool documentaries about US Military force. They do that to make our capabilities look so totally overwhelming at the risk of disclosing something that we might not want the enemy to know that we have. The weight the pros and cons and disclose what they need to to achieve the goal.
- USNetizen 13y ago
  Having served in the military myself, I think you misunderstand how things operate. It's not about convincing others to work less, but it is bringing to light the problem of people and businesses correlating raw hours to productivity. Working harder does not mean you are getting more done. Hard work is a given and it is required for entrepreneurs especially, but it shouldn't be harder than it has to be for no reason. Simply working more hours for the sake of bragging rights is going to cause you to fail miserably.
  - larrys 13y ago
    "Simply working more hours for the sake of bragging rights" I find it hard to believe that people are working more hours for bragging rights. (Because it doesn't seem to make sense that for whatever you get in return for those hours is more or less the good feeling from thinking that others think you are so great for doing so, right?) Otoh I definitely do believe that people brag about something that they do for another reason. Now if you told me someone went to the flower store to get their spouse flowers so they could then brag that they got flowers I would believe that. Because that doesn't take that much effort so the payoff in your mind would be pretty good for the time spent. Make sense?
    - USNetizen 13y ago
      Believe me, it happens. I personally know people who brag about endless hours in the office simply to sound relevant and "hip", not because they are actually accomplishing anything additional. Typically, these people are seeking attention as "hard workers" when in reality they are going about things all wrong. I've experienced it, that's why I wrote it.
- rayiner 13y ago
  Long term sustainable value creation doesn't happen by treating everything as a game to be won.
  - larrys 13y ago
sheepmullet 13y ago
Long term health and productivity requires at a minimum: quality sleep, exercise, and healthy eating. I'd also argue it requires a long term focus on personal l&d, strong family and friend bonds, time for reflection, and some time to yourself. So lets look at a sustainable high performance day: 8 hours sleep 1 hour relax time 1 hour reflection 1 hour exercise 1 hour food prep/eating/housework 1 hour with family/friends 2 hours l&d/side projects So without taking work into account we are looking at 15hours/day worth of important tasks. That leaves ~9 hours for work including commute time. Surely short term you can sacrifice on a few of these tasks but which ones can you ignore long term and still have a happy, healthy, and productive life? You can also "optimize" a few of these such as by using your commute to exercise (cycling, walking, etc) or having most of your friendships at work or hiring someone to do the cooking and housework. I'd also argue that sometimes it is worth it to sacrifice some of the above in the short term if you are getting sufficiently compensated. But id put that compensation at a likely multimillion exit, a million/year salary, Or achieving a lifelong dream.
burntroots 13y ago
Take a look at John Cleese's talk about creativity[0]. I personally buy into the whole concept of there being an open mode and a closed mode and you can't be in both at the same time. My coding tends to run in cycles. When I'm trying to figure out a problem or structure an area of code, I'm in the open mode and I experiment a lot. What I don't do is commit a lot of code during that period. After everything is nailed down and I have a game plan, I switch to the closed mode. That's when I code around the clock and bust my ass. But that lasts a day or two, max. Maybe it should be work smarter, then harder, then repeat? [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU5x1Ea7NjQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU5x1Ea7NjQ
mkal_tsr 13y ago
My high-school physics teacher always said, "be lazily efficient" and it's been a pretty sound guiding principle for me. That means I find shortcuts, optimize menial tasks, and most importantly, look out for early signs of burn-out so I can back off, thus keeping more efficient in the long run, all while those "time wasting" tasks become automated (thus letting me work "harder" on the important things).
- j45 13y ago
  I had a teacher like this too... helped me learn and then forget, and then re-learn that getting more done with less effort is working smart. Trying to double that up leads to problems because working smart takes foresight and planning. I know in my earlier 20's I didn't have much more to my life than coding. I wasn't as well rounded and did not know that my time away from the keyboard made my work at the keyboard twice as fast. Maintaining that fine line of efficiency is key -- I've found being married to the right partner who gets the crazy runs, but ensuring it comes back to a norm is in place. I find I'm able to get done in hours by preparing and thinking a little what can take days of trying haphazardly and burning the candle at both ends, but everyone's mileage may vary.
dools 13y ago
I used to lump "Work Smarter, Not Harder" in with the gigantic category of information I classed as "self help bullshit". It is, however, very good advice. The truth is that it's relatively easy to exchange your time for money, what's very difficult is to set up a system which makes money without taking up all your time. I would say it's far more worthwhile to learn how to do that, even when the numbers (ie. actual money being made) are small, because it creates the freedom to experiment with other, more ambitious projects. Also, if you're in the habit of "working hard" you may not realise that you're wasting your (finite) time and (finite) energy on something that has little chance of succeeding. I liken "work smart not hard" to not buying the biggest house you can possibly buy based on how much you can borrow. If you are constantly "mortgaged to the hilt" in terms of your time and energy expenditure you are setting yourself up to make bad decisions and miss opportunities when something that is genuinely worth all that time and effort comes along. You should never run any system at "full capacity" for very long.

USNetizen 13y ago

The "harder" part actually refers to working harder than you have to to get something done, not the overall level of effort. You could do things manually and inefficiently, i.e. the "harder" way, or you could do it "smarter" and save hours of your time to work on other tasks, thus accomplishing more in the same amount of time or less.

stickhandle 13y ago
Understood. My point, probably vague, is two-fold: (1) You need to be good enough at something to recognize smarter. You need to do the work. For most non-trivial efforts, this means harder. (2) Smarter is a process, not a destination. Once you have leveled up to be able to work smarter, not harder you probably need to work harder at something deeper to keep growing.

larrys 13y ago

"I find the Work Smarter, Not Harder meme a little tiresome" Agree. Let's take it one step further. Let's say you want to win the game. And one of the ways you do so is to convince the other players of the game (and business is a game btw) to not work as hard. [1] I see this quite a bit with this meme. People telling other people that they don't have to work hard. [1] This is really the reverse of the mindgame that the US military plays with all those really cool documentaries about US Military force. They do that to make our capabilities look so totally overwhelming at the risk of disclosing something that we might not want the enemy to know that we have. The weight the pros and cons and disclose what they need to to achieve the goal.

USNetizen 13y ago
Having served in the military myself, I think you misunderstand how things operate. It's not about convincing others to work less, but it is bringing to light the problem of people and businesses correlating raw hours to productivity. Working harder does not mean you are getting more done. Hard work is a given and it is required for entrepreneurs especially, but it shouldn't be harder than it has to be for no reason. Simply working more hours for the sake of bragging rights is going to cause you to fail miserably.
- larrys 13y ago
  "Simply working more hours for the sake of bragging rights" I find it hard to believe that people are working more hours for bragging rights. (Because it doesn't seem to make sense that for whatever you get in return for those hours is more or less the good feeling from thinking that others think you are so great for doing so, right?) Otoh I definitely do believe that people brag about something that they do for another reason. Now if you told me someone went to the flower store to get their spouse flowers so they could then brag that they got flowers I would believe that. Because that doesn't take that much effort so the payoff in your mind would be pretty good for the time spent. Make sense?
  - USNetizen 13y ago
    Believe me, it happens. I personally know people who brag about endless hours in the office simply to sound relevant and "hip", not because they are actually accomplishing anything additional. Typically, these people are seeking attention as "hard workers" when in reality they are going about things all wrong. I've experienced it, that's why I wrote it.
rayiner 13y ago
Long term sustainable value creation doesn't happen by treating everything as a game to be won.
- larrys 13y ago

sheepmullet 13y ago

Long term health and productivity requires at a minimum: quality sleep, exercise, and healthy eating. I'd also argue it requires a long term focus on personal l&d, strong family and friend bonds, time for reflection, and some time to yourself. So lets look at a sustainable high performance day: 8 hours sleep 1 hour relax time 1 hour reflection 1 hour exercise 1 hour food prep/eating/housework 1 hour with family/friends 2 hours l&d/side projects So without taking work into account we are looking at 15hours/day worth of important tasks. That leaves ~9 hours for work including commute time. Surely short term you can sacrifice on a few of these tasks but which ones can you ignore long term and still have a happy, healthy, and productive life? You can also "optimize" a few of these such as by using your commute to exercise (cycling, walking, etc) or having most of your friendships at work or hiring someone to do the cooking and housework. I'd also argue that sometimes it is worth it to sacrifice some of the above in the short term if you are getting sufficiently compensated. But id put that compensation at a likely multimillion exit, a million/year salary, Or achieving a lifelong dream.

burntroots 13y ago

Take a look at John Cleese's talk about creativity[0]. I personally buy into the whole concept of there being an open mode and a closed mode and you can't be in both at the same time. My coding tends to run in cycles. When I'm trying to figure out a problem or structure an area of code, I'm in the open mode and I experiment a lot. What I don't do is commit a lot of code during that period. After everything is nailed down and I have a game plan, I switch to the closed mode. That's when I code around the clock and bust my ass. But that lasts a day or two, max. Maybe it should be work smarter, then harder, then repeat? [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU5x1Ea7NjQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU5x1Ea7NjQ

mkal_tsr 13y ago

My high-school physics teacher always said, "be lazily efficient" and it's been a pretty sound guiding principle for me. That means I find shortcuts, optimize menial tasks, and most importantly, look out for early signs of burn-out so I can back off, thus keeping more efficient in the long run, all while those "time wasting" tasks become automated (thus letting me work "harder" on the important things).

j45 13y ago
I had a teacher like this too... helped me learn and then forget, and then re-learn that getting more done with less effort is working smart. Trying to double that up leads to problems because working smart takes foresight and planning. I know in my earlier 20's I didn't have much more to my life than coding. I wasn't as well rounded and did not know that my time away from the keyboard made my work at the keyboard twice as fast. Maintaining that fine line of efficiency is key -- I've found being married to the right partner who gets the crazy runs, but ensuring it comes back to a norm is in place. I find I'm able to get done in hours by preparing and thinking a little what can take days of trying haphazardly and burning the candle at both ends, but everyone's mileage may vary.

dools 13y ago

I used to lump "Work Smarter, Not Harder" in with the gigantic category of information I classed as "self help bullshit". It is, however, very good advice. The truth is that it's relatively easy to exchange your time for money, what's very difficult is to set up a system which makes money without taking up all your time. I would say it's far more worthwhile to learn how to do that, even when the numbers (ie. actual money being made) are small, because it creates the freedom to experiment with other, more ambitious projects. Also, if you're in the habit of "working hard" you may not realise that you're wasting your (finite) time and (finite) energy on something that has little chance of succeeding. I liken "work smart not hard" to not buying the biggest house you can possibly buy based on how much you can borrow. If you are constantly "mortgaged to the hilt" in terms of your time and energy expenditure you are setting yourself up to make bad decisions and miss opportunities when something that is genuinely worth all that time and effort comes along. You should never run any system at "full capacity" for very long.