Definitely disagree with this one.<p>The way to be outstanding is to go after a niche and learn your way into the 20% of that field. For knowledge-based work this is <i>not</i> that difficult.<p>For example, a few years ago I stumbled upon payment fraud as an interesting area to learn about and quickly became somewhat of an "expert" in the industry. The whole Trust & Safety industry has only gotten larger ever since, and there's no shortage of product management/engineering/data science/program management/analyst jobs in this area.
This is a horrible article and borderline (maybe full blown) blog spam. While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with going after unsolved problems, and making headway on one of them is a really important part of intellectual and professional maturity, it's not a panacea, and it doesn't come without severe existential risks. Nowhere is the downside of going after moonshots addressed, which is failing completely and having little to show for it. I have seen many a talented friend (and friend of friend) waste 7 years of prime youth going after something that wasn't just hard, but intractable. I can't put into words what an incredible hit to momentum, network, and skillset that is. A huge part of professional maturity and productivity is determining value at risk, using leverage, and getting outsized impacts out of reasonable amounts of effort.
Here's the thing though, the hard things are hard becuase they are actually hard. OP talks about <i>risk</i> of failure only glancingly, for instance in quoting someone else: "We shy away from hard work because inherent in hard work is a risk. Hard work is hard because you might fail."<p>Right. So what happens when you do what OP suggests, and fail? This can happen, right, that's what "hard" and "risk" mean.<p>Some risks are burn-out, and destroying your career. This happens. I have seen it.<p>So, what do you to do mitigate those risks while still going after hard things?
The hard problems are always the fun problems. Yes there's risk, but life is full of risks. The learning that happens while tackling a hard problem is immeasurable, will take you leaps and bounds over your contemporaries, and that will set you apart. Subject matter experts aren't forged by solving easy problems.<p>There seems to be a great deal of "careerist" advice in the forums. That path can certainly lead to contentment, but it's slow, intellectual suicide. I was on this track before, but gave it up and couldn't be happier.<p>Edit: grammar
Definitely agree with this one.<p>The hard way to be outstanding is to go after a niche and learn your way into the 20% of that field (did some copy paste here, lazy to repeat arguments).<p>For example, if you want to be proficient in radar systems you can learn and read all the books on radar, and probably still become an average research student of radar technology.<p>If you can find a hard problem in radar and solve it somehow, you will become well-known in an established field without becoming a classical expert like writing book on radar.
The problem with this kind of advice is that it's not really actionable. It's only useful in retrospect.<p>If you are able to recognize these situations/opportunities, then everyone else would be able to recognize them too. It's not like my brain is all that different from those around me, after all.<p>You might as well tell me that the secret to flying is learning how to throw myself at the ground and miss.<p>Hard problems are usually hard problems for a reason, and when you spend time on them you often go nowhere.<p>Maybe better advice (that is actually actionable) would be something like this:<p><i>"Try to tackle hard problems that nobody else wants to tackle during 20% of your time, on the odd chance that you might stumble upon an easy solution and get big rewards from it."</i><p>Sort of like diversifying your stock portfolio. Keep some of your eggs in the nice stable investments with low returns, but maybe invest some allocated percentage on some riskier long shots too.
This essay is a bit weird because it systematically avoids talking about the reason people (rationally, I might add) avoid hard problems: they are risky. Yes the rewards are great, but so too is the risk of failure.<p>I, personally, have seen people pursue this strategy, flame out, and get fired for it.<p>I work to provide stability for my family. I don't take risks unless I get an explicit request from management to do so, and thus someone else to take responsibility. The whole idea that employees should be dynamic and "ask for forgiveness, not permission" is truly perverse in a capitalist context: your employer wants you to take the risks, but they definitely will take the benefits if you succeed. If you fail, hey, its your fault.<p>Doing risky stuff is fine but I don't do it unless I've got backing from management.
I struggle with a more basic issue here; there are plenty of things at my current job which are just "accepted". Lots of "this is the way it has always been", but are actually really bad for productivity and our ability to do business. I've tried to set out plans to address a few of these issues, and I'm willing to accept the risk that, if I fail, it might reflect so poorly on my career that I'd be fired to have to find a new job.<p>My problem is simple; how do I convince the person above me in the pecking order that they should even give me space to attempt the project? I keep getting rejected, presumably because if my project fails, it might also reflect poorly on them, and they're not willing to take the risk.<p>I guess the same would apply to people looking for funding for their mad, overly ambitious startups or projects.<p>tl;dr: how can you "go after hard things" if nobody is willing to back you because they think it's too hard.
Without a bigger plan such as a domain-knowledge interest for personal, academical or business purpose, once you really hit the wall your game is pretty over though? Slogging is hard.
This article is probably sloppy but also somewhere implicitly implies - doing hard work requires privilege.<p>I think this is something that many comments here also allude to. By hard work I mean working on hard problems and not a slogger. By privilege I mean a mix of leverages via knowledge, experience and career circumstances.