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Comment by tejay | Hacker News Reader

This appears to be an older post, but I think what the original author meant was that hard work alone isn't a sufficient condition for success (I'd argue it is a necessary one, though).

The real answer is there probably isn't a sufficient condition for success, but hard work in pursuit of your own goals (rather a manager's) increases the likelihood of a positive outcome.

Still, I'd have gone a step further. 'Career' is such a false construction. Go do fun shit and get really good at it. Maybe I'm naively optimistic, but if you're really good at something, it's pretty easy to get paid (a lot) for it.

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"if you're really good at something, it's pretty easy to get paid (a lot) for it."

This is only true in technology and because of the current market in tech labor and skills (and powerful people are working hard to change that).

It's not true for the musician, or many other passions where the reward has to be the work itself because it's hard to make any kind of living at it.

Devoting energy solely to building a good impression with your boss is a high risk strategy when bosses and companies aren't very loyal. Building an outside reputation as well using work on open source f.i. hedges that risk and increases your negotiation power.

Hard work is not important, good results are. That's a very different thing.

Winning the lottery is a "good result", without a hard work.

Moving a pile of dirt from one place to another, every day, is hard work without a purpose.

Working hard (and smart) on problems you are passionate about gives you the best chance at succeeding.

And about impressing someone with your work, I have a rule - impress yourself. :)

I think hard work is a necessary precursor to good results. Although, that hard work may not be of the kind most people associate with office work of the past.

Fair point, hard work is not well-defined. I interpreted and meant it in the sense of throwing a lot of working hours at the problem. And I think this is not necessary for good results and may actually be counterproductive in some cases.

For my part, I think so is boredom.

That's non-responsive. We know what the deaired outputs are. The question is what are the necessary inputs.

In that case, "more and more hours" is often not a necessary input

In the article the author mentions that hard work is table stakes, meaning everyone is working hard but you need to do something different to actually get ahead and stand out among your other hard working peers.

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