The One Thing in Life You Can Control: Effort | Hacker News Reader

The One Thing in Life You Can Control: Effort

blogmaverick.com

64 pointshhm23 comments

The title is a bit misleading because it makes it sound like we're talking about a scalar. Actually you can control both the length and the direction of the vector. The direction is probably the more critical.

There's a different way of thinking about effort that takes into account both direction and magnitude. What could you be doing right now that would make you $10,000 an hour? This way, you will focus on the right tasks, and the right intensity.

You're projecting the vector onto a plane. You still have to pick the right plane (I wouldn't have chosen this one, for example), but it does simplify things in that you only have to choose once.

That reminded me when a physicist once told me that in physics and life, Work = Force * Displacement.

"It would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours a day passed by while I was at work. That’s the worst way to measure effort. Effort is measured by setting goals and getting results."

"...and yet my only goal was to have a pulse." http://dilbert.com/2008-10-29/

That line hit home with me too.

We don't have control over effort. We think we do because that is one of the functions of consciousness. Even looking at it from that perspective, there are factors like energy level and passion that seem to exist in some people with the rest wondering how to get it. Still, this article is useful as a motivator, getting some people from the latter to the former.

The discussion of whether we have control over effort is fascinating, but is ultimately pointless within the context of entrepreneurship. The only ones paying attention to it will be the procrastinators, who will use it to further rationalise their behaviour.

The control may be an illusion, but the responsibility is still very real.

True.

I usually assign responsibility to whoever has control.

It goes the other way round. Whoever has the responsibility is in control.

Take the blame to take the lead.

With regard to this, I will reference specifically health. I've had some persistent health issues that significantly limit my effectiveness. When they are ascendant, quite simply it is difficult to focus in the face of the constant irritation.

(These result from injuries, and the medical community has been less than definitive and less than helpful in finding solutions.)

My point is not a self-pity fest, but to say that, from personal experience, I've learned there are physical factors that can limit one's effort. I think that some people who have not experienced this, don't realize nor understand it.

It is part of what makes community essential to achievement. We all learn from others, and passing on our knowledge is essential to continuing this progress. Similarly, people have times during which their ability to do for themselves is limited. At those times, the community can help to get them out of that low spot. (Whether family, friends, and/or a larger agency.) The result is hopefully someone who can once again contribute to the community. (Note that I'm not defining what that contribution should be. In that regard, I support a free market of ideas and personal interests.)

It seems to me that for people who claim to value life, this should be a pretty basic understanding. And yet we have this persistent notion of the self-made person. In moderation, it's a good idea. Everyone has to find their own path and success. Taken to extremes, we end up with "survival of the fittest". This is a workable means of defining hierarchy, but it fails to investigate resource optimization where an investment in another may yield larger dividends. And it is at odds with that espoused viewpoint of "valuing life" in a general sense. It may limit the scope of cooperative ventures. And this is a time where human ventures are ever more complicated and in need of such cooperative effort.

Individual effort is indeed necessary. But we need to look also as a community at what enables that effort, and where there are limitations, to work on removing them. And that I see as a group effort, not just one person grasping their bootstraps.

The bootstraps are necessary, but they are no longer sufficient.

excellent. You must be Japanese ;-)

I am lucky enough to have a boss who takes the time to recognize the members in our group as individuals that have our own set of limitations and talents, and judges our successes or failures based on them.

"My point is not a self-pity fest, but to say that, from personal experience, I've learned there are physical factors that can limit one's effort. I think that some people who have not experienced this, don't realize nor understand it."

The physical factors you refer to limit ability, not effort. At the point where one is frustrated by limited ability, the person ideally refocusses their effort on resolving the problem: waiting for the proverbial storm to pass, requesting assistance of some kind, restructuring the problem to yield a workaround, or ultimately resolving to move in another direction.

When your health issues are ascendant, do you not wait until they have passed before resuming work? Effort, in the larger sense, is as much about working smart as it is about working hard. Equating effort with exertion is simply folly.

"It is part of what makes community essential to achievement."

Communities naturally form around the implicit understanding that the community will work for the greater self-interest of the individual. If the community can't enable future effort from an individual through communal effort, the community will cut off that individual. People help people who help themselves.

Communities have a greater capacity for achievement, but sorely lack the tolerance and insight of the individual. In fact, it is often through the "self-made man", through massive individual effort guiding communal effort, that great things are achieved. A community is unlikely to achieve such things purely under its own auspices.

"The bootstraps are necessary, but they are no longer sufficient."

In the short-term, bootstraps are sufficient, but none of us operates in a vacuum. In the long-term, neither individual nor community alone is sufficient. However, communities are incapable of adapting to rapid change. Families split, friends depart, empires crumble; the individual endures. If great things are to be achieved, it will be on the strength and agility of the individual guiding the community, not the other way round.

Effort is good, but it's like a road. You can keep walking up the road, and at some point you will get there. But sometimes, you are walking the wrong direction. Sometimes, you are walking in the brambles. That's were the real difficulty lies. Constantly considering and making sure you are going in the right direction.

I think just walking is good enough, no matter how hard we think, we will never know if the road we have taken is right. So why care about if it is good or bad, just start moving, we can always change the directions later. Walking on the wrong road is way much better than stagnating on the right road.

I though of this one: http://www.despair.com/incompetence.html

Platitudes coming from a rich successful guy are still platitudes.

Interesting post. It seems the guy was inspired by the breakup with his girlfriend into putting the hours in. I would argue that initiative is as important as effort - no one wants the world to fall down around them in order to force them into action.

(Advice from Successful Achiever) = (Advice from Aspiring Achiever) * n

For me, n is large.

Great post!

You can spend all the effort you want on a crappy idea, but it will still fail miserably. Luckily, many people adapt accordingly.

also make sure to get a life, meanwhile...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com