Let us come up with this answer mathematically, because if we construct a model, it would be very easy to see how results of hard work vs smart work will compare and it would be easy enough to plug some numbers to simulate the results.
Let us imagine that there are two twin brothers. Their physical characteristics are exactly the same giving no advantage to anyone over the other in terms of physical capabilities.
Their father gives them two tool boxes that are exactly the same. They have the exact same knowledge as they attended the same schools and their teachers were the same.
One of them is slightly smarter than the other. But let us for now imagine, that they both started as wood cutters.
- All they do is to go to the jungle, cut wood all day long, and sell that wood to a local grocery store as timber. People buy this wood to keep their houses warm. The wood is only burnt in the fire-pit.
- Let us say, it takes T time to be spent to put in E efforts.
- E efforts get converted into W amount of work.
- W amount of work creates I amount of impact.
- I amount of impact gives someone M amount of money.
- How does this look like?
[M / I ] * [I / W] * [W / E] * [E / T ]
- This expression is the driver of converting time into money.
- Both brothers begin, and they both spend T hours in a day.
- They make M money each day. How so?
[M / I ] * [I / W] * [W / E] * [E / T ] * T = M
They both keep doing this day after day, and they make M money each day. They both spend some of that money, and save the rest.
Let us just say - they both spend 60 % and save 30 %. Savings simply give them some room to spend that money in improvement of tools.
They both keep doing this, until one day, one of them realizes, that he does not want to work only hard. In fact he wants to spend only T - dT time in cutting the wood. How will his impact look like?
[M / I ] * [I / W] * [W / E] * [E / T ] * (T-dT) = M * (1 - dT/T)
Who is winning?
The one who is working harder is winning.
But the one working less is smarter. He realizes that his earnings have now dropped. He decides to improve his earnings by the power of his thinking, and starts thinking in rest of the time.
Next 200 days, he only thinks in the amount of time dT, but comes up with multiple ways to improve earnings.
Realize now, that his total time spent is still T. He has brought his total work on par with the hard working brother, but a fraction of that work is smart work.
How would he make his equation look like?
- He would improve money per unit impact as this: [M + dM] /[ I - dI ]. That is, for less impact, he would generate more money. Example: Selling his wood for more money because he would sell it as usable furniture wood, instead of wood that can only be burnt.
- He would improve his impact like this: [I + dI]/ [W - dW]. That is, for same work done, he would improve his impact. He would just select better trees to cut in the jungle.
- He would improve his work like this: [W + dW] [E - dE]. To do this, he would buy better tools from his savings that would reduce his efforts and would get more done with the same efforts. Think for example about an automatic saw instead of a manual saw.
- He would improve his efforts like this: [E + dE] / [T - dT]. To put the same efforts, it would take him less time. He would automate a few things. For example - let us just say that he automates the process of transfer of money from all his merchants.
How will his equation look?
[M+dM]/[ I-dI ] * [I+dI]/[W-dW] * [W+dW]/[E-dE] * [E+dE]/[T-dT] * (T-dT)
Alright, now that we have setup the model, lets plug some numbers.
Smart plus hard work:
- If at every step, the delta d part is one percent then this all looks like:
- 101/99 * 101/ 99 * 101/99 * 101/99 * 99 = 107.24.
- Now the smarter one is not only on par, but actually better than the hard working one. They both are working equal number of hours. The smarter one is kicking ass.
- He continues putting his 1 % time in thinking and generating ideas, and next year he makes the delta d part look like 2%. In terms of numbers, it is now looking like: 102/98 * 102/98 * 102/98 * 102/98 * 98 = 115.00.
- Now he is severely beating the hard working one. They both are working for equal number of hours.
- Let us just imagine that each year the smarter one adds one extra percent. In year ten, his numbers look like:
- 110/90 * 110/90 * 110/90 * 110/90 * 90 = 200. Now, he is twice as good as his brother. His brother with same time spent will never be able to compete with him.
- Note here, that in this model, I kept the total time spent between hard worker and smart worker exactly the same.
- Smart one kicks ass!
- Here is yearly comparison chart:
Now let us run a model, where the smart one does not work hard from day one and never puts enough time in working. He puts the same 1 % time in thinking. He works only half as many hours in actually doing things.
Smart, but no hard work:
- In year one his impact will look like:
- 101/99 * 101/99 * 101/99 * 101/99 * 50 = 54.16. This is far behind the hard working brother.
- In second year, it looks like: 102/98 * 102/98 * 102/98 * 102/98 * 50 = 58.67
- For 9 years even when grown like this still looks like: 102.92.
See what happened? The smarter brother took 10 years to only catch up. Here is yearly chart: Note that the difference could not be leveled out even in 20 years.
How does the real world look like? The hard working brother would not be so dumb to keep doing the exact same thing all his life. Let us just imagine, that he copies the ideas of his smarter brother, but it takes him a whole year to do so. He just lags behind by one whole year.
With the first model, their numbers will look like this: Smart brother always wins, and keeps winning.
In the second model, the smart brother loses even worse because his hard working brother copies his great ideas within one year, and then beats him with his hard work even further.
Support to the conclusion: Hard work shines. An answer a lot of people want to believe.
We have proven mathematically, that you cannot choose to work [only smart, but not enough]. You would be beaten severely. It is when you work [smart and enough], and actually do a lot of work, you will always stay ahead.
Smartness will always make you shine, when you bring your total work on par with someone else who is not working as smart as you.
But even dumb people copying your methods, or ideas, but working super hard will beat you over the long term.
All this certainly seems true, when your smartness is in the ballpark of someone else. In this case we started with two brothers, and their smartness is in the same ballpark. One of them had a tiny advantage.
What if one of them was actually super smart, and not just a tiny bit smart. He says ~ “Screw this tool box, I want to be a computer programmer, manager and entrepreneur”. His wood cutter brother cannot become a computer programmer, manager, entrepreneur ever. Now their smartness is not in the same ballpark. It is majorly different.
The smart brother buys wood from his own brother, he finds an online avenue for selling timber and furniture, he hires people to convert wood into furniture, and by doing this, he makes more money by year three itself. In year four he hires more people to do the same with many other merchants and grows his income even further.
In the next year, he says, I will build modular furniture. He hires more designers, carpenters, equipment and sets up a factory to run a business like Ikea and makes several times the third year. Perhaps, his mathematical formula takes a form ~
[M+dM]/[ I-dI ] * [I+dI]/[W-dW] * [W+dW]/[E-dE] * [E+dE]/[T-dT] * (T/2-dT) * (1 + r)^Year
Do you see what is happening? Now the numbers are simply astonishing even when the smart one puts only half the time.
And if he puts the same amount of time, the numbers are simply unreachable.
There is just absolutely no way in the world, the hard working brother can even imagine to come on par, leave aside any competition whatsoever.
Conclusion supporting intelligence shines: When the intelligence is far different, no amount of hard work will make it a level playing field.
I support both hard work, and smart work. Work hard to work smart. And work smart to reduce hard work. Work so smart, that working hard is compelling, and then work super hard :)
My answer is not a side taking answer. It is only an analysis to inspire people to work to the best of their capabilities and the best of the capabilities come when you work smart and work hard.
With hard work, you can certainly outshine those who are in the same ball as your smartness, but if someone is far smarter than you, you would have to work super hard to come on par with even a fraction of their value. In fact it may not happen at all in the whole life.
I started getting comments about this answer saying - you have ignored a lot of things, such as inherited advantage, where you were born, and so many other things. Sure, some of the things come down to luck. A person who was born in USA had an advantage and better exposure to advanced world systems. A person born in a poorer country would not have that exposure for several years until they make it to an advanced nation for higher education or for jobs, but then do not forget the examples of so many people who achieve so much success even in poor countries. It is far better to work hard, work smart, read books, get mentors do everything possible than to blame the luck. Luck bends itself to the favor of brave. Who is stopping you from trying various things?
-Rohit Malshe
