So how hard should we work?

[Butters]

I'm just listening to old tapes of RSD Owen Cook talking about success and working 16-hour days. But then I also see today's Owen saying it's all bullshit. 

Is that how it is? When you're young you think working hard matters but as you're older you realize it was just a lie? Can you build a successful business or career without hard work? 

I mean, define hard work right? Right now I work maybe 35 hours, 7 days a week in my own business. That's actual focused work. I'm quite happy with it. But then are these hustle and grind guys just fucking deranged, or is there something to it? 

[Ulax]

I like Cal Newport's philosophy

[AerisVahnEphelia]

Try not to work at all for years, and you'll know.

People all try to "work", but how many really tried to not work at all.

But when I m saying don't work, it's really don't work.

Even most bums are working : begging, stealing, dealing etc . . 

you shall really try to not work at all, like really really not work, no effort, all efforts are illegal, no self improvement, no improvement, no getting better, just nothing to do, nothing to achieve.

 

Edited Thursday at 05:01 AM by AerisVahnEphelia

[Butters]

2 hours ago, AerisVahnEphelia said:

Try not to work at all for years, and you'll know.

People all try to "work", but how many really tried to not work at all.

But when I m saying don't work, it's really don't work.

Even most bums are working : begging, stealing, dealing etc . . 

you shall really try to not work at all, like really really not work, no effort, all efforts are illegal, no self improvement, no improvement, no getting better, just nothing to do, nothing to achieve.

 

If you're truly present and engaged in your daily life, what's the difference between work and not work? 

[Basman]

You know how hard you should be working on an intuitive level. Just ask yourself. How much do you feel you need to work to achieve your goals? Adjust accordingly.

[TKP]

 

Hard work matters but smart work matters more. The 16-hour day hustle culture is often a cope for inefficiency. Owen's shift shows that. I've found that 35-40 hours of focused, deliberate work beats 80 hours of scattered effort. The key is consistency and strategic thinking, not just grinding.

[Olaf]

@Butters I would say it is a bit of mix of both. You can grind too hard that it is actually not effective anymore, but I do feel that working hard in a certain area helps to get more data and then when you have all that data, you can now make more informed decisions. So grinding is just to get quantity of data, but quality, which in the end matters most, comes from being present with what you are doing, which actually means to work less hard. So what I do nowadays is that I have periods where I grind to get data and I have periods where I work less hard, but focus on quality and use the data I gathered from the grinding. I don´t know if this makes sense, but I think you get the point.

Edited 11 hours ago by Olaf

[Butters]

I just don't get it. Some top entrepreneur 200 years ago worked 80 hour weeks. Now, with AI agents and all the information in the world, we still do it?

Seems like a scam. Like some limiting belief that only hard work creates riches.

However, it might be more about emersion. If you work seven days, that's what 80% of your mind will go to. But if you also have hobbies, interest, other friends etc it gets scattered and reduced to maybe 30%, not enough to get momentum.

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Butters