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"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 yo
by 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 agoHaving 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 agoBelieve 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 agoLong term sustainable value creation doesn't happen by treating everything as a game to be won.
- larrys 13y ago"Long term sustainable value creation" What do you mean exactly by "long term sustainable value creation"? Examples?
- rayiner 13y agoBell Labs, NASA moon mission, the development of the internet, Xerox PARC, Google's self driving car efforts. Possibly Tesla and Space X (I assume their engineers are well rested). I'm quite partial to big plodding corporate R&D labs as a model for technological development. These efforts are marathons, not 100m dashes.
- robryan 13y agoSure it does. Value is created because companies are being pushed by the competition to continuously innovate and improve.