When somebody says "work smart not hard" I get the intent of a statement like that.

There are few things in life that bother me more than watching someone run around in the proverbial hamster wheel going nowhere while simultaneously believing that because they are busy, they are actually accomplishing something.

The work smart statement isn't terrible advice, but it does leave out a very important element

Output

At the end of the day efficiency, not necessarily hard, work or even smart work are what matter when performing tasks.

With the finite time we will spend in these physical bodies on this earth timeliness does matter.

This very fact of limited lifetime alone is part of what makes our time on this earth valuable. Once its gone, it's gone.

I have had a fair percentage of people who have worked for me who literally believe if they explain to me how hard they were working that this somehow negates poorly planned, and/or executed tasks. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this is some sort of actual reasoning process in so many people.

•If hard work was all that mattered I could skip using labor saving equipment like say an excavator and hand somebody a shovel, why stop there? Just hand out soup spoons and have them dig a ditch with it then fill it back up!

•Why bother driving several miles to work when you can walk or crawl? Wouldn't it be far more noble to do it the hard way?

•Why use computers to send emails when see could just send a parchment scroll via courier?

Just because something more difficult doesn't necessarily make it more valuable...

Then I have observed the flip side of this where "working smart" is taken to the most ridiculous of extremes. Where every trivial task has a nine step equation, a break out session, followed by a couple of progress meetings in between. Because don't ya know, over intellecualizing something makes it more valuable! Hhhhhhhhhh...

why?

I have a few thoughts on this.

● Some people just get stuck in this child like mentality of everybody gets a trophy cause they did their very best, even if their very best kinda sucked. Sure this works on young children great. I mean when a child is trying to learn something, you encourage them when they take those first few steps even if they fall down after taking only a couple. However once they've reached a certain level of skill, a bit more is expected.

●Maybe this brand of thinking comes in part from compulsory institutionalized "education."

This whole notion of punching a clock and doing just enough to keep from being ostracized or disciplined by some authority figure, I think breeds the mentality of appearing productive. this then becomes a survival mechanism early on in many students lives and bleeds over into actions and lifestyles in later years.

● Living in a bumper-sticker/meme-logic culture.

People seem to think that you could sum up complicated issues like poverty with a bumper sticker or picture with some words pasted on it. Which is how overly simplistic nonsense like the image below is shared to near viral status on the web.

●Over emphasis on credentials and education vs. Actual Value.

What would you rather listen too?

(A) Somebody with a PhD in music who couldn't play any instrument with proficiency?

(B) Somebody who couldn't even read sheet music,but was very talented and creative?

Who would you prefer fly a plane you were on?

(A) A pilot with minimal experience who had scored the highest in his exams in flight school

(B) A pilot who had tens of thousands of flight hours logged, who had flown their way through all sorts of difficult conditions?

Now there isn't anything wrong with credentials, but they are only as valuable as they are applicable to a given task. If they add no actual value, they are little more than window dressings. This notion seems to have been lost in this modern world.

Output, or in other words the end result of intelligence, and actions and efficiency are what ultimately matter.

If we were to ask ourselves about what we were putting out into the world both in quality and quantity and truly assess whether it was worth something how much more meaningful would our lives be?

Photo credit ( via Google search hamster wheel)
Meme found on Facebook a couple of years ago