I didn’t think he was lying, just wondering what your own assessment would be.

I think you’re right that motivation has a lot to do with it, but there are other factors too. Being 32x seems like too large a gap to be explained by motivation alone, unless the situation over there was extremely dire. We have to entertain the possibility that you’re also much better than they are. Attribution to motivation alone makes it sound like your mental model is based on the idea that intelligence and aptitude is equivalent in everbody.

I’ve always said to younger folks new to the workforce that the way to get above average performance reviews is to simply give a shit. That alone seems to put any minimally competent person ahead of half the competition.

And to what extent is the ability to maintain focus and motivation a talent on its own?

Edit: I just want to say, I found the article extremely enjoyable. I am a little bit surprised by some of the feedback in HN comments. I’ll be blunt, you sound like you are bragging and have an elevated sense of your own worth. I do not think that is actually the case, but your writing (or maybe just your accomplishments) seem to trigger that heuristic. In my estimation, you seem to just be presenting facts and laying it all out, and I’m not sure how to do that when those facts happen to be flattering. As a clinical psychologist, maybe you have insight into why someone perceived as bragging gets downvoted. Since you expressed an interest in writing and motivating people, you might want to think about how to present that information without it distracting the reader by triggering their insecurities (if in fact that is happening). I generally struggle with that as well - although not on this particular issue, because I do not really have any great accomplishments to brag about ;)

Although I like the article, my biggest issue with it is that I would like for it to be true, but I am unconvinced that it’s a recipe for success with most people. I’m not sure how many people you have managed, but have you really not seen anyone’s performance drop without deadlines?

You’re getting shit for going off topic, but I’m glad you did, because I would not have clicked on an article about narcissism.