Yeah, listening to Carmack talk about working life is like listening to CEOs talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Good for them, but not really applicable to 99% of people.
Read the history of ID software. He quite literally pulled himself up by his own bootstraps.
Not while working for someone else he didn't. The vast majority of people have no choice and there's no guarantee that hard work will pay off. Hell, more often than not, it just means more will be expected of you in the future and when bonus time comes your boss will complain about constrained budgets.
Actually, he did. lol
Putting more effort into work doesn't guarantee better results but it certainly could improve the situation for more than 1% of people and to imply otherwise is just as out of touch as a CEO saying "anyone can do it".