- - public: true - [Source](http://www.paulgraham.com/hwh.html) - Bill Gates, the smartest business person in his times did not take a day off in his twenties. You need both talent and hard work to actualize your potential. - Being honest with yourself is very important, as only you can judge how hard your working, the quality of your effort and the interest you have. - Put in the hours everyday till quality doesnt reduce. Then try to increase those hours - Know the shape of real work, and only do real work. - Push yourself when you are in the danger of procastinating, but not too often. You should get rolling quickly. - trying hard does not mean constantly pushing yourself to work. - What keeps someone going, depends from person to person - As to what to work, you may be a Mozart where you have a calling from your child, or you may be Newton where you restless move from physics to alchemy. - Along with measuring how hard you are working, and how well. You have to think about whether you should keep working in this field. - If you are working really hard, but no results you should switch. - The best test of whether its worthwhile to work on something is whether you find it interesting. It is dangerously subjective, but its probably most accurate. What's a better predictor of importance than whether its interesting. - For this test to work you have to be honest with yourself. - Working hard is not just a dial you turn up to 11. It's a complicated, dynamic system that has to be tuned just right at each point. You have to understand the shape of real work, see clearly what kind you're best suited for, aim as close to the true core of it as you can, accurately judge at each moment both what you're capable of and how you're doing, and put in as many hours each day as you can without harming the quality of the result. This network is too complicated to trick. But if you're consistently honest and clear-sighted, it will automatically assume an optimal shape, and you'll be productive in a way few people are.