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Comment by LordHumungous | Hacker News Reader

I had a physics professor who liked to point out that Feynman (who we all idolized as college students studying physics) used to solve hundreds and hundreds of classical mechanics problems for fun, in his spare time. These were the same homework problems that we hated doing and always complained about.

The professor's point was, being great at something isn't just a matter of having a big powerful brain, it's also a result of putting in the work, and that work is not glamorous. A lot of people want to go straight to the big, fun, "important" problems, the big job titles and pay checks, while skipping all the toil that gets you to that level.

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> used to solve hundreds and hundreds of classical mechanics problems for fun, in his spare time. [emphasis added]

You kind of missed your own (or possibly your professor's) point there: being great at something is a matter (in part) not just of putting in the work, but of having the inclination and motivation to put in so much work. If you think of it as "all the toil that gets you to that level", you're not the kind of person who is going to become great in that field.

A lesson I learned too late.

You have to be willing to do the work, yes, but also figure out what you really, really like doing, and then do it -- a lot. Over, and over, and over, for years or even decades.

A lot of times its simply difficult to find what one really likes doing. But I agree that ones who do end up "succeeding" really follow the template you propose here.

That being said, running after high remuneration in and of itself isn't bad. Sometimes its just what you have to do because a lot of other people depend on it.

Indeed, I think it creates an odd inversion over the course of the educational process. The people who started with great work ethic and the motivation of a remunerative career, but little actual interest in the content, did great in high school but eventually gave up and switched majors.

The people with variable work ethic, but who could be motivated by the subject matter itself, mastered the subject and ended up with the remunerative careers "by accident."

Sure, I guess that's one way to look at it.

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