Lex Fridman: Hard work is required for greatness

Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: • Kevin Systrom: Instagr...
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Kevin Systrom is the co-founder and former CEO of Instagram.
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[@derekh79]

3:38 Ego; When you’re younger and you say it’s better to work smart , it means you think you know what it means to work smart “ Humility; Work Hard. They have the humility to understand that “I’m gonna have to work my ass off because I’m too dumb to know how to work smart” This clip spoke so much to me.. thank you!

[@Pimpjit85]

How did this get 30 likes lol. This makes no sense.

[@gonencmete3566]

What I've personally seen in the valley from successful teams is in line with this. You have to do both. However, if the work is not directed towards the correct path and things do not progress as they should, working in this way burns people out. If there is good progress, people push their limits even further and even enjoy it. I think reward or sense of reward is usually left out of the conversation and it's an important part of working hard.

[@marceorigoni6614]

Sometimes you dont feel the sense of reward. I mean at least in the shorterm. Thats why is also important to be sure that what you are doing is rewarding or meaningful to you. Because when you finally reach a period were you feel you are making good progress you will think your work was worthwhile. The thing is, you dont know If you would feel that when you reach that period unless you do actually reach that period. When you reach that period even If you stop feeling that you would have some confidence that it is meanwhile. So the thing is, the sense of reward and progress is obviously helpful and a good time to really know If what you are doing is worthwhile to you. But, you will not reach often to these states unless you are less demanding in your definition of progress. Of course some of that is needed but If you feel like you are always making good progress you are not pushing yourself enough to be better. Is that good? you have to look for the sweet spot were you know you are not guaranteed to get it always but still you are some likely to get it. High expectations goes with burnout, low expectations tend to just dont do much work. You can choose your poison. I mean pretty similar to what you said, going with the second one usually makes easier to feel sense of progress and I personally like that, but often times that makes me want to stick with only that, because of fear of failure. Of course I still prefer doing that and face that fear rather than having the feeling that nothing is enough. But is not easy to control the crave you have for progress. Anyway. I agree that the sense of progress and reward is most likely essential unless you are on the extreme of consciousness or something like that. I dont know exactly If it is better to aim low and try to aim high or to aim high but to be open to progressively more outcomes. The important thing is to know your limits and base you expectations either on that or dont be hard on your self because you did fail on something was likely to fail within you limits. Probably you would do a combination of both.

[@Deliciasdelahumanity]

passion and hard work go hand in hand

[@ST5S5]

From my experience I work hard to work smarter. I get work done while always looking for things to make my work easier in order to work even harder

[@travisarndt853]

This has been one of my favorite lex interviews

[@RypienGT]

"Trying is the first step to failure" Homer Simpson

[@mikestaub]

"hard work" is counterproductive if it leads to burnout, as most important projects take years to reach fruition. Also, in the knowledge sector it usually just means staring at a screen longer and processing information, which is not healthy. I also find it interesting that so many successful people attribute their success to hard work vs luck and timing.

[@mikestaub]

@my_yt_channel my point was that many people work hard and never reach success. So the difference is usually luck.

[@eliasjanetis]

@@mikestaub The harder you work, the luckier you get ;)

[@dojadog4223]

I also believe that the "look at me working 80 hours a week" super-CEO is a carefully constructed image for useful idiots to buy into this typical big tech entrepreneurial hype. I do believe that working hard is often required but for 99.999% it still won't be enough or at least they won't get rich and successful. Conversely, some Wall Street goons just take a big risk by shorting a stock, earn a billion and retire when they're 35. Is that working hard?

[@MrNukenin16]

@@mikestaub Yes but how many people out of the successful ones didn't work hard and made it?

[@mikestaub]

@@MrNukenin16 A decent amount I'm sure.

[@Aquamayne100]

Kevin is spot on. Somethings require hard work. Do it or dont either way dont complain.

[@felipeestrella8745]

This is a gem. 👌

[@knowledgeispower4671]

I Always have kind of joy in my heart for all the things i am doing and that is the kind of work-life balance for me no matter how much i need to wotk hard.

[@wardogmobius]

There's different types of mix of work that can be done. Some people work really hard but productivity lacks. Some others are very productive ar certain task but lack the handwork ethic to push it to the next level. But there's so many different levels o hardwork and productivity that some people can't even comprehend. So everything is relative and humility is a must so to be open to new types of comprehension.

[@mariodemetriou1034]

I’ve watched every clip from this podcast. I should just watch the whole thing.

[@casek6930]

And what is the prime motivator? The desire to be valued by other people, i.e., status. An insecurity.

[@harrypidd4755]

I work my face off and I completely agree. I'm acutely aware I'm primarily motivated by insecurity! Haha

[@projectpumpyoungjstretch1537]

Some times hard working is different than productive working..

[@DuncanHustle]

This needed to be said. Earn your worth.

[@controllerbrain]

Not everyone has the ability to do that, yet it's assumed that everyone does.

[@tirthankarmishra1420]

@@controllerbrain how does one know their ability without achieving anything at all? Everyone should be optimistic and try the best

[@controllerbrain]

@@tirthankarmishra1420 Even though I said ability, it's not actually about ability, it's about circumstances. Everyone has the ability to do great things, unfortunately many people are blocked due to factors outside of their control.

[@CrackerJax]

I think working hard gives the experience to earn the ability to work smart.

[@mrxsal]

The amount of burnouts is on the rise. The concept of a burnout was unknown like 20 years ago. Kinda feel like this topic should have been part of this conversation.

[@solarman6648]

Burnout is now a clinical condition....its in medical journal now. It is legit, and surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) its physicians who experience it a lot

[@stevves4647]

@@solarman6648 ironic

[@armani257]

But don't you think that social media also contribute to the problem. ?

[@mrxsal]

@@armani257 This is my personal opinion, but I think social media is indeed very much related to the core problem of most burnouts: having too high expectations. Social media is just one of many factors, but people (especially millennials) have high expectations of themselves because they believe they have to be a certain person, or a certain way. IMO the main idea put forward that "you have to work even harder to be successful" is yet another pressure factor of which there are already too many.

[@jaiwhy5212]

The answer is both ❤️🔥💯

[@jonathanjollimore4794]

Yea I am not getting these last 5 year's back but I think I might just be getting a reward for doing the right thing

[@grey.fox.]

depends on profit margins, some companies cant afford to recognize everyone who works hard, it would be expensive. they can promote some people, but they can't afford to pay everyone what they're worth. you pay people what you think theyll accept.

[@demonslayer9016]

what is greatness, in the eyes of whom

[@dojadog4223]

I would say this is a truism. The thing is, in our current strange late capitalist state PR is much more important than working hard on an actual innovation. In many cases the "look at me working 80 hours a week," super entrepreneurial CEO is a carefully constructed image in order for you to believe that what they're selling is incredibly innovative. But more and more of what big tech is actually selling are merely fashion items with marginal technological improvements.

[@greenie62]

There's this thing in cycling...and ummm, every other physical activity. lol I kid playfully. Another 👍 interview/clip

[@alelectric2767]

What is hard work?

[@kilgoresapothecary4501]

1m% agreed

[@ToMPaSHKoV]

Kinda helps having Uber rich parents.

[@jm.101]

Someone at every job I’ve ever had: “Work smarter not harder.” Me working smarter and harder than everyone else: :rollseyes:

[@Pimpjit85]

I disagree with all of this. Just figure out what you want. And trust me, if you want it bad enough, you will work hard or smart or whatever the hell it takes. Hard and smart are an effect, not the goal.

[@richardjohnson9534]

You can work very hard and very smart at digging yourself into a ditch. Far better to know the what and why of what you are doing. As opposed to just assuming you know what you are doing. Just because you think you do. You can think anything. Whether it is real is another thing entirely. So be conscious. Be aware. Be wise. Always ask yourself are you working in alignment with or in opposition to the source of life. Because if you are not. It’s only a matter of time before the house of cards you have been working so hard at erecting comes tumbling down. All around you. And then there goes that fancy car. And fancy house. And fancy plans you have been saving for all your life. Thinking you were just on the cusp of easy living. Everyone thinks it will never happen to them. But to some other guy. Some poor schmuck who should have know better. When anything built on a lie eventually comes falling down. No matter how well or smart you lied. To yourself and to others. Something Silicon Valley is exceptional at. Maybe even more so than Hollywood. And that is saying something.

[@plooopa]

Just got called out by Lex :,( Working hard on improving myself however only upward momentum from here :)

[@SilentShiba]

Re work smart/hard? I actually disagree with Lex, I think success takes work, but not hard work. If it feels hard, you should not be doing it. I think that many hard workers work hard on useless projects, or projects which ultimately prove to be unwise. Going at appropriate paces is the only way to ensure wise ideas are made manifest, imo.

[@TD-ti3yt]

In my experience it is always the guy claiming to be “the hardest worker” who is anything but that. People who work hard don’t talk about it.

[@stevves4647]

Nope, if you're working hard than you know your working hard

[@dojadog4223]

You get it. Working smart means pretending to work hard so your engineers will actually work hard.

[@chesstictacs3107]

Hard work is genetic. The willingness to work hard is genetic. Like some animals, insects are crazy workaholic matafakas. The same is true in humans, some genes are super workaholic.

[@killaed09]

Disagree with Lex here, working smart means having the awareness to stop and evaluate your actions and measure progress. This feedback helps you calibrate your actions so you’re more likely to be successful. He may have a point about it being an excuse not to work, but the same would go for people who would say hard work. They may just be good at looking busy without actually accomplishing anything

[@brainbodybites]

At least listen to what he's saying.

[@kjames705]

Smart people work hard. Hard working people are smart.

[@rusitoexplorador]

Don't have a social life to focus completely on your work #Sigmagrindset 🤑🤑

[@tommymikalsen9875]

If something is hard to do, it’s not worth doing

[@SuperYtc1]

The most honest and truthful answer. XD

[@jn2400]

Takes more than sitting on your arse on twitter pointing at everyone else . Get out there life is short, focus on raising up humanity as a whole.

[@KetanSingh]

Correct. That's why I'm clear that I do NOT want to chase "greatness" and work hard. I have far too many interests to dabble around with to be focused on just one thing in life.

[@neotower420]

This makes me think of a character I've developed, Thomas (past version). A moment to flow my esoteric intuition for writing, if you will. I am but an observer to the process, and it has already begun. Thomas lived in the past, a world lost to time and chaos, his world now is fractured. He exists in a state of "in-between", his residence.. The Tower of Miro, this is where we must be provided with some context. An ancient battle, there was a boy who stood up when all other men had been defeated. The Foe was a massive, hulking brute that had come from another dimension. It was not of this world, and it was a mortal threat to humanity. Endless war had erupted upon it's emergence into the threads of this universe. Humanity had been forced to submit to an impossible villain, and in the ashes of total destruction.. Miro stood up, just a boy relatively speaking.. Fire had engulged his eyes, his gaze was a piercing beam of Conviction. He stared at the Foe before him, seeing only an enemy who would be defeated. This was the ancient battle, and Thomas.. he was the only survivor, his observation to the sanctity of this "miracle" born from victory, he would fein ignorance and plead virtue for being able to carry on the spirit of a sacred memory. But, death would forever escape his grasps. He had played a part in the reason for Miro being at that battle, and now he play as witness for the Universe. The living sacrament for the knowledge of the fact that a child saved the universe from total annihilation. And in the final moments of his life, Miro would use his incomprehensible power to save a fraction of his home, his universe.. The present, reality, would forever be shaped by this sacrifice, and thus, thomas would forever sit within the Tower created on that day.. He would be the observer, the keeper of sacred knowledge, a moment in time forever stuck, the place in which we all seek but can never return. The moment of the turn, the divide that is created within all of us. Our path and our vision, our experience, our world. Now, and forever.. a fractured world. 'Miro's World.'

[@neotower420]

I'm in the graphics, and drawing phase of this story. (my avatar is my work). I have a plan, a goal, a vision.. for what I want to achieve with this project. And my ego and my "Self" are in complete agreement, I'm flowing on the writing far greater than my usual artistic self. Therapeutic, to sit in my brain with more free flowing connections than I had when I was "in my own way". go with the flow

[@adelinaquijano1083]

I tell before you find another job and then I heard that company close soon.

[@adelinaquijano1083]

no one man in life just my community.

[@ValidatingUsername]

Imagine an elite that forces geniuses to do hard labor for the benefits they were going to realize with automation and it was stolen from them and worse if they complain and arent humble 😂

[@maamotteesoot]

Why do intelligent people over-use the word “LIKE”?

[@clifb.3521]

And we must remember of course, great people are rarely good. 😉

[@jaywyse7150]

Not Elon as the hard work mascot!😅

[@Nickname_42]

The Title is nonsense.

[@aaa84gt]

Okay smart person.

[@danieljimenez3792]

1st comment!

[@adelinaquijano1083]

only friends but I deleted my apps

[@AJ-xk7yr]

Lol lex thinks that he works hard because he runs 😂 this guy can’t last at a job that requires 9-12 hours of work a day! Just because you workout and run that doesn’t mean you work hard! 🤦‍♂️ omg these people🤦‍♂️ You have people like joe rogan who works once A month as a commentator and he thinks that he’s a very hard worker.