
Why smart hardworking people don't become successful (2018) - nietzscheshorse
https://medium.com/@melissachu/7-reasons-why-smart-hardworking-people-dont-become-successful-d4d3b6119cbc
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michelpp
> But as I grew older, I realized that’s not necessarily the case. A few
> people I know who are intelligent and have a strong work ethic have gone on
> to do notable things, while many others are doing fine. Unfortunately, there
> are some that drift along, unsure about what to do.

Not all who wander are lost.

This post is terrible advice, it's like a sermon from the Church of the
Silicon Bubble. Smart but not successful? You don't reach out enough. You
don't sacrifice enough. You're too distracted. You don't take enough risks.
You don't believe in yourself. You can't commit. It's all in your head!

~~~
ThrowawayR2
> " _Not all who wander are lost._ "

I'm not really sure that quote means what most think it does. The source seems
to be:

“ _All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king._”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The implication is not that wandering aimlessly is OK but kind of the
opposite: that one who looks like a wanderer has a grand purpose and destined
greatness within him that is merely temporarily hidden.

Anyway, going back to the main point, a different quote comes to mind: “ _The
reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in
trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man._ ” ― George Bernard Shaw

~~~
Supermancho
> The implication is not that wandering aimlessly is OK

That wasn't the point of the GP.

> I'm not really sure that quote means what most think it does

Wandering is exploring a domain. Knowing a domain is part of forming a
strategy or merely the goal in itself.

------
dev_hacker
This article glosses over the fact, known to us who have witnessed humans up
close in business environments, that success is almost entirely political
within an organization.

~~~
kryptiskt
One would think that being smart should be an asset when playing politics,
though.

~~~
rasz
Politics require social skills, being smart is detrimental because it lets you
see thru all the bullshit.

~~~
ikeyany
If you were smart, wouldn't you know how to optimally deal with bullshit?

~~~
heavenlyblue
This takes a whole different set of skills against e.g being good at
programming.

For example, how do you react to inherently unfair situations, someone taking
advantage of someone else? If you start picking on people good politicians
will quickly “plausibility deniability” you out of the equation.

It’s much easier to accept (with a bit of anger) that you made a mistake in
your program that bring defaced due to your “judgement being clouded by
anger”.

You may be smart enough to even understand what you have to do, but it will
take practice to do it well even if you understand it conceptually.

~~~
ikeyany
Just because you're a good programmer doesn't mean you're smart.

------
api
This doesn't mention charisma, and the fact that smart hardworking people
often lack it.

From what I have observed charisma is by far the number one factor for
success. It's more significant than hard work, intelligence/IQ, appearance, or
the quality of one's ideas. You can put charisma behind an obviously stupid
idea and get quite a bit of traction. It does often fail eventually but the
charismatic founder often profits nonetheless and moves on to something else.

Charisma is so powerful that I find it disturbing. I've watched people who
really ought to know better become transfixed at the presence of a charismatic
person even if the stuff coming out of their mouth is nonsense. I think it
works so well because it bypasses the rational mind and speaks directly to the
brain stem and says "I am big alpha, follow me and I will get you food and
safety" or similar. It speaks to the most ancient parts of the brain.

I don't mean to sound totally negative. Like any power it can be used for both
good and evil. It's just that I've mostly observed it being used for evil in
today's world.

------
loriverkutya
Another post about success is only measured by position at work and money and
"following your dreams", where usually the dream is get rich and/or famous.

According to my 10 years old me, I'm the most successful person in the world,
because I wanted to learn to play the bagpipe (in my original country it was
pretty impossible), now I'm moving to Scotland and learning to play the
bagpipe.

Please don't buy this bullshit, that success is measured in job titles and
whatever you can do at work. (Dont get me wrong, my job is important part of
my life, I have a nice and IT fulfilling job, which buys my family food, a
roof over our head because Scotland is pretty rainy.)

~~~
hellisothers
Ugh but it’s so hard to let this go, I lie awake at night thinking to myself
“stop spending so much time doing work” and every morning I wake up and crush
work again because it feels good. Work is like a drug :p

------
herio
I always found the notion that we have to climb upwards and always make more
money to be a bit weird.

As long as I have enough to live comfortably, stash some away and not worry
I'm good, I don't need more. As such, I don't really get involved in most of
the things that this post is about nor do I particularly care to do so either.

Work is what I do in order to sustain myself, it's not my life. The minute I
walk out the door at work I've forgotten all about it and never think about it
until morning. I realise this is me being pretty lucky but I'd probably even
change career completely if I couldn't do this anymore working in tech. I
think a lot of people struggle to find that balance, sadly.

~~~
harimau777
I think that the issue is that most people do not make enough money to live
comfortably, stash some away, and not worry. For example, if someone wants to
own a home in a major cosmopolitan city in the United States, then they must
be extremely wealthy.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
If you can't afford a home in "a major cosmopolitan city" then you probably
shouldn't be there.

~~~
redisman
All major cities in the US have 50-70% of the population as renters. Let me
deliver the news.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I wasn't making a distinction between renters and home owners.

------
lazyjones
Success as defined by society isn't always what smart people aspire to.

 _``Thus is happened he became neither musician nor poet - \- if we use this
latter term in its every-day acceptation. Or it might have been that he
neglected to become either, merely in pursuance of his idea that, while a high
order of genius is necessarily ambitious, the highest is above that which is
termed ambition? And may it not thus happen that many far greater than Milton
have contentedly remained `mute and inglorious '? I believe that the world has
never seen -- and that, unless through some series of accidents goading the
noblest order of mind into distasteful execution, the world will never see --
that full extent of triumphant execution, in the richer domains of art, of
which the human nature is absolutely capable.''_

\-- Edgar Allan Poe (``The Domain of Arnheim'')

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rrggrr
Another missed reason: Derailed by a lengthy divorce. Or, corollary to that
reason, family difficulties that drain you of energy and attention. Many
heroes out there whose struggles will never be know but who deal with a lot.

~~~
phaedrus
Even a divorce which is not lengthy and avoids acrimony can leave one feeling
like the "reset" button got pushed.

------
jandrewrogers
There is a more basic reason missed by the article: many smart, hardworking
people don't know how to sell. Almost everything in life, regardless of what
you work on, is selling and no one is born with this particular skill set. You
learn it like any other.

It was likely the single most valuable skill I (eventually) learned, as a
"smart hardworking people" by nature.

~~~
abrichr
How did you go about learning it?

~~~
lowestprimate
Read Influence by Cialdini. Take an improv class. Find some mentors with
skills orthogonal to you. Learn to be fine with being uncomfortable as you
learn and get feedback.

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fargle
Seems like the #1 reason smart hardworking people don't become "successful" is
that the author has a vague and kinda weird view what constitutes "success".
If some super-smart, hardworking dude is just drifting along reading HN
instead of climbing the corporate ladder or whatever, I'm guessing they're
also smart enough to be doing it that way on purpose.

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samlevine
This is good advice, especially for folks who entered the workforce during the
Great Recession.

You have to take risks and be uncomfortable to grow. But you also have to
accept that your choices have opportunity costs and it takes time to make them
come to fruition.

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solonely
Because life is full of uncertainties, randomness and unfairness. Even the
most successful ones are not inmune to this. Steve Jobs was fired from his own
company and died of pancreatic cancer at 55.

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ehvatum
Because people only want what they can’t have.

