The Fallacy of Working Smarter

Have you ever heard someone say “work smarter, not harder.” That sounds pretty good right? Seems to make sense, but as a statement it’s incredibly overrated.

Work smarter not harder is such a misleading phrase because it makes you think that you can get by on smarts alone and you don’t have to work. The emphasis is the “smarter” part, not the work part, but the work part way more important than the smarter part.

You can’t work smarter if you’ve never started working in the first place.

Chances are you’re very smart (or at least you think you are), so being smart doesn’t help. Working helps.

If you’re overweight for example and haven’t exercised in three years, working smarter just means working.

You have to learn to work, before you work smarter.

I find that this shows most in planning. You can create the smartest goddamn plan in the world, but if you don’t follow it, it means nothing. Do you not follow the plan because you’re not smart? Maybe. It’s possible, but it’s more likely you don’t follow it because you know it’s going to be HARD.

Being smart is overrated, while working your ass off is extremely underrated.

Work smarter not harder is so appealing because most of us (me included) are allergic to hard work. It’s very comforting to be told that you don’t have to work hard in order to be successful or achieve a goal.

It’s also bullshit.

Sometimes working smarter, just means working.

Are you 100lbs overweight? Can you lose all that weght just by being smarter?

Do you waste mountains of time on aimlessly surfing the internet? Is being smarter going to help you stop?

Are you addicted to drinking or smoking? Does being smarter help you stop?

Conscious effort is really the key, aka Hard Work.

So here’s my suggestion, next time you hear “work smarter not harder” focus on the WORK not the smarts.

Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

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