Work, Hard Work, and Stupid Work

For me, work means utilizing all available tools, knowledge, and options to achieve a goal. You will need to dedicate time and effort regularly to acquire or to become better at them.

Sometimes, in specific projects, these tools, methods or pieces of knowledge aren’t ready, complete, or acceptable. You adapt, do your best, and later rework with new information by spending more time and effort as the project progresses. That’s hard work. A focused effort that makes progress possible despite limits.

However, if you skip learning, fail to explore options, neglect to build checklists, and repeat the same mistakes, then rework and spend more time and effort on it, that’s not hard work. That’s ignorance disguised as hard work, aka stupid work.

I know folks who are genuine, care about things, and are putting a lot of effort with minimal returns, which is discouraging. The problem here lies elsewhere, which needs to be addressed before one burns out.

The solution often lies in reading, learning, experimenting, talking to experts, asking questions, exploring, thinking, and writing before you begin work. Some of it you can do daily even without a project in picture.