(highlight:: There are three ingredients in great work: natural ability,
practice, and effort. You can do pretty well with just two, but to
do the best work you need all three: you need great natural ability
and to have practiced a lot and to be trying very hard.
[1])
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- [note::3 ingredients for great work:

1. Natural ability
2. Practice
3. Effort]

(highlight:: There is some technique
to it: you have to learn not to lie to yourself, not to procrastinate
(which is a form of lying to yourself), not to get distracted, and
not to give up when things go wrong.)
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- achievement, work, productivity,
- [note::3 tenents of working hard:

1. Not lying to yourself
2. Not procrastinating
3. Not getting distracted]

(highlight:: I can't be sure I'm getting anywhere when I'm working
hard, but I can be sure I'm getting nowhere when I'm not, and it
feels awful.
[2])
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- [note::How to know you're supremely passionate about something - You have an innate desire to work on it (even if progress is not guaranteed) and when you're not working on it (idling), it feels bad.]

(highlight:: You can't solve this problem by simply
working every waking hour, because in many kinds of work there's a
point beyond which the quality of the result will start to decline.)
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- work quality, burnout, sustainable motivation, individual capacity,
- [note::Glad the author highlights this caveat. It's very easy to say "well, I'm supremely passionate about this thing, so why don't I just going to 'out work' everyone else who's also passionate about that thing?" This seems like a recipe for burnout and may result in a net loss of "work done" in the long-term.
Reminds me of the quality line/preference curve mentioned in: https://mindingourway.com/half-assing-it-with-everything-youve-got/]

(highlight:: Cultivate a
sensitivity to the quality of the work you're doing, and then you'll
notice if it decreases because you're working too hard. Honesty is
critical here, in both directions: you have to notice when you're
being lazy, but also when you're working too hard.)
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(highlight:: Many
problems have a hard core at the center, surrounded by easier stuff
at the edges. Working hard means aiming toward the center to the
extent you can. Some days you may not be able to; some days you'll
only be able to work on the easier, peripheral stuff. But you should
always be aiming as close to the center as you can without stalling.)
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- [note::Really like this perspective. "Problems are like avocados"?]

(highlight:: By center, though, I mean the actual center, not merely the current
consensus about the center. The consensus about which problems are
most important is often mistaken, both in general and within specific
fields. If you disagree with it, and you're right, that could
represent a valuable opportunity to do something new.)
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(highlight:: Some of the best work is done by
people who find an easy way to do something hard.)
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(highlight:: Are you really
interested in x, or do you want to work on it because you'll make
a lot of money, or because other people will be impressed with you,
or because your parents want you to?
[8])
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- [note::Related: https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html]

(highlight:: As a kid, you get the
impression that everyone has a calling, and all they have to do is
figure out what it is. That's how it works in movies, and in the
streamlined biographies fed to kids. Sometimes it works that way
in real life. Some people figure out what to do as children and
just do it, like Mozart. But others, like Newton, turn restlessly
from one kind of work to another.)
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- work, purpose, calling,

(highlight:: The best test of whether it's worthwhile to work on something is
whether you find it interesting. That may sound like a dangerously
subjective measure, but it's probably the most accurate one you're
going to get. You're the one working on the stuff. Who's in a better
position than you to judge whether it's important, and what's a
better predictor of its importance than whether it's interesting?)
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(highlight:: Working hard is not just a dial you turn up to 11. It's a complicated,
dynamic system that has to be tuned just right at each point. You
have to understand the shape of real work, see clearly what kind
you're best suited for, aim as close to the true core of it as you
can, accurately judge at each moment both what you're capable of
and how you're doing, and put in as many hours each day as you can
without harming the quality of the result. This network is too
complicated to trick. But if you're consistently honest and
clear-sighted, it will automatically assume an optimal shape, and
you'll be productive in a way few people are.)
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- [note::Someone should turn this into a poster:
Working Hard
It's not just a dial you turn up to 11.

1. Understand the shape of real work.
2. See clearly what kind of work you're best suited for.
3. Aim as close to the true core of the problem as you can.
4. Accurately judge each moment both by both what you're capable of and how you're doing
5. Put as many hours each day as you can without harming the quality of the result.]