Lately something has been bothering me – why are smart people so dumb? What is it with the focus on careers, working 60, 70, 80 hour weeks for money they don’t need? Don’t they realize money is worthless without the time to spend it? Don’t they realize the opportunity cost? Life is passing them by, yet it is often enjoyed by dumber people with less money!
If they are so smart, they should simply figure out what will make them happy and their life a success. Instead, the smartest of the smart receive an elite education and quickly get funneled into jobs with vague titles like “consultant”, “investor”, or “capitalist”. They receive promotions, make buttloads of money, and surround themselves with luxuries. These people fall into two categories: those that justify their behavior and those that don’t think about it.
Justify
Some people are happy working 80 hours a week and truly believe it is what they want. To them I say – show me just one person on his death bed that wishes he had spent more time in the office. Even those who did very meaningful work, helping others, providing for a family, realize just how valuable that time is when it is gone. There is more to life.
Some people try to front load their careers, thinking, if I can just last in this job until I’m 35, I’ll have enough money to be set for life. That is a slippery slope and quite a sacrifice. If you don’t walk away when you are on the bottom, what makes you think you’ll walk away when you are on top, making even more per year? After sacrificing your youth and damaging countless relationships, how enjoyable will your retirement be?
Even worse is the feeling of entitlement – “I have worked hard my entire life and I’m incredibly smart. I deserve to make $150k, drive a BMW, and be the envy of my neighbors.” Ew. You are not entitled to anything, I’m sure there are others that work just as hard at the bottom of the totem pole. Quit justifying your lavish behavior and start appreciating the fact that the best things in life are free.
Don’t Think
I believe most smart people don’t think about happiness and the definition of a successful life. They just put their head down and devote the majority of their time to kicking ass at their job – have they even thought about what is at the end of that road? Is it really what they want?
These are important questions, but they are rarely even considered. Why does this happen? The people that go to elite universities are overachievers. They grew up smarter than their peers and likely dominated in a number of other areas. For whatever reason, they love to win, and their career is the most obvious way to dominate in adult life.
When people who have a high need for achievement … have an extra half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy, they’ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. And our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward. You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale, teach a class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and energy in your relationship with your spouse and children typically doesn’t offer that same immediate sense of achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It’s really not until 20 years down the road that you can put your hands on your hips and say, “I raised a good son or a good daughter.†You can neglect your relationship with your spouse, and on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t seem as if things are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.
Harvard Business Review – How Will You Measure Your Life
The tradeoffs are very subtle. Bob Barker is not going to present you with two Showcase Showdowns and ask which one you want. It’s a gradual process built up by hundreds of daily micro-decisions stacked up over years. In fact, no individual decision is even multiple choice. Smart people prove to be just as capable at ignoring the innumerable options as dumb people.
Social Pressures
If only it were as easy as identifying all the possible choices and making the correct decision – there are external pressures in play as well. Many smart people spend the first quarter of their life in school, showing exactly how awesome they are. An elite education provides the opportunity for a wonderful career, something largely beyond the grasp of the general populace. In fact, not only do you have this opportunity, it is expected of you to capitalize on it. The majority of your drinking buddies from school move on to big things in the working world, providing a comparison pressure. You don’t want to let down the family that sacrificed to give you the opportunity. Many high school friends, and all those less fortunate, would kill to be in your position, how can you throw that away? It’s a good thing most of them will never have to grapple with these questions!
A Less Fulfilling Life
These forces add up and result in a less than fulfilling life for many of the smartest people in our great country. It is a shame. They take the sure thing (career), misallocate their time, and don’t consider the other options. But I don’t blame them. If you knew you can make over $100k per year just by putting in the time, had everything your heart could desire, and were the envy of those around you, would you turn that down on the off chance that you could look back on your life and deem it time well spent?
Photo: Street art by Bansky. Picture by Chris Devers
What is smart? I only see hard-work and pay-off.
What if the core value you wish to impart on those around you, especially your immediate family and your children, is this value of hard work?
What about the idea of positioning yourself upwind? Working hard now to master (monetarily) valuable life skills so that when the time comes, you can cash in on all your years of experience and knowledge. School is a good example – pay for the skills that will then payback ten-fold.
What about working hard because you think you can change the world? Like the right kind of start-up that hires the people that buy into the DREAM of what the company is doing.
What about a work environment that pushes you to your mental limits? When co-workers are mentors or competitive peers, communication and collaboration are necessary for success, and technical knowledge comes flying at you from all directions?
Smart? I guess I am thinking the top 1%. Maybe even the top half percent. So really smart! The ones that you can definitely identify as intelligent, the ones that make up the majority of the students at elite universities.
I’m all for personal development. Usually the type of development that is acquired on a job is to do your job better or prepare you for the next job. Not the stuff that makes you a better or more interesting person in life. But at what point in your life do you stop setting up for the next thing? Always get better, but never sacrifice part of your life as a stepping stone. (College is very important to personal development as far as making you a mature and social. There may be other examples like this.)
Startups are a horse of a different color. I’m all about working hard to change the world. Too many people are hoodwinked into thinking they are having an impact on the world, when those impacted the most are the few that get rich off of it.
Work can also be fun, challenging, and social. But I still think it’s important to be well rounded and not use it as a crutch for all areas of your life.
I was going to be a counterpoint to your piece (I’m always a jerk. I hate they “Oooh, great article and I agree with it 100%” comments). Anyway, Egan beat me to it.
I don’t know if you know any CEOs or executive of a large corporation. I work with such executives and I have to say that, if you want to get there, then you often have to put in the effort as well as the brains, which usually includes hours. But these executives are running huge businesses with thousands or tens of thousands of employees. These are real concerns, not startups with a few or tens of employees. These businesses run huge parts of the economy and they are complicated on a far different scale than you may think.
You’re probably talking about entry level or mid-level jobs, still years away if ever from the executive suite. You’re also talking about people who don’t like their jobs. Many people ultimately DO like their jobs.
I don’t think smart people (top 1%) work at crappy jobs they hate for 80 hours a week for 30 years.
The CEOs and executives of large corporations are precisely the ones that make me ask, is it worth it? I suspect they are the ones that look back on their life (literally sitting on a mountain of cash) with some regret.
I also don’t make the distinction between those that like their jobs and those that don’t. In fact, I believe most of the top 1% are fairly happy at their job, even if they are working long hours. They are challenged and learn much more than the other 99%. But there is still such a thing as working too much. Ultimately I want to question the default behavior for these people to make their career the top focus, especially while young.
Bringing the economy into it? So now it’s Skinner’s fault we’re in a recession because he’s encouraging people to think about why they are working 80 hours a week during their youth for no apparent reason other than praise, advancement and the potential for something great? Inherently those are all wonderful things and we are animals in the end who simply yearn for rewards, but what % of ‘very smart’ people will be CEOs? If this is the end goal then the vast majority will in the end have wasted their life spending more than 2/3 of their waking hours working towards something they ultimately didn’t accomplish.
Clearly not everyone wants to be a CEO and people will convince themselves they need to work a lot in their current field for other reasons.
I-Banking – It’s only a few horrible years and then you are set up to make a ton of money and boss others around. [What comes after those few horrible years? A huge % of people stay in the field and dedicate their lives to moving money around using intelligent patterns to make more. Stressful, long hours, and something that really just takes from society is not worthy of defending.]
Start Ups – It’s totally worth it because I’m employee #7 at this totally sweet place with a great idea that will go public and make me millions (or will save a million lives in Africa or set me up for success at another startup). [How many start ups make it? I’m not saying they are a bad thing. In fact just the opposite. What I am saying… There are things outside your sphere of 2-100 people.. clearly. More power to you if you are doing something awesome and learning from it, but spending 40 hours doing that something awesome (instead of 80) allows for much more exploration and growth outside of those start up walls. Just don’t be surprised if you’re in the ~75% of startups that fail, which are obviously not failing for lack of effort.]
Consulting – I’ll get a ton of experience and get to travel and work on cool projects. [You’re a 23 year old kid that doesn’t know anything. How are you advising people? The redeeming feature of this field is that it’s usually a somewhat short stint that people usually realize was pretty cool and that they’ll never do that again.]
I really have nothing against any of these professions. I’m transitioning into somewhat of a consultative role at my company in which I will probably end up working way more than I want to, but I’m hoping to get to see come cool things while I do that. Whatever, I’m a hypocrite. I think the thing that bothers me most is the subtle (or occasionally overt) attitude from a lot of people that if you are in Silicon Valley and not moving up the ladder in a speedy manner then you are doing something wrong. Maybe that’s just insecurity on my part because I am completely fine finding something I enjoy doing and sticking to that for the foreseeable future. Then again I want a wife n babies soon… so maybe I’m a different breed.
I can’t speak for i-bankers, consultants, or even other start-ups. When I hear those people talking about 80hr work weeks, I don’t get it. I hope they are doing it for reasons that make sense to them (if they are good at it, they probably are).
But I can speak for the reasoning behind my own long hours: I like it. I enjoy what I am learning. I love the people I get to work with and learn from: they are some of my best friends. I am motivated by the big picture of our company. And I appreciate the value I am adding to my company and to society by my efforts.
The best part? There are moments of extreme personal pride, and even greater moments of extreme pride in the team. Pride that results from hard work, long hours, and reflection on a job well done.
It takes time to be good at anything. As an athlete, you must understand that. At the end of a season, you look back on the highs and lows and you are filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling: pride in the accomplishment of hard work. The hours were worth it and the sacrifices were worth it too.
I think you’re trying to say that most successful people are trying to be good at the wrong things. And maybe they are. But if their judgement is sound and they like what they are doing, I say they should go for it. And maybe even work harder.
Think of the counter-example: a deadbeat that wastes their talent and contributes only enough to get by. Sure, they have lots of time for family and friends, but are they living life to the fullest?
You crushed that comment. Personally knowing your situation, I have to say it is pretty unique. Nonetheless, I’ll continue supporting my side of the table.
Working hard is terrific. But working hard on the wrong things leads to an empty life. Most people blindly assume that working hard is going to lead to “success” because that is what we are taught. But defining that “success” and if is is truly what you want is crucial.
Further, hard work does not have to be in the workplace. Imagine working 40 hours a week and volunteering 20 hours doing super impactful work like helping kids in EPA. Or working 40 hours a week and building your own product on the side. Or working 40 hours a week and sharing your awesomeness with more people in this world.
A wise man by the name of Rob Grube once told me, “it’s easy to work all the time”. It’s harder to find other ways where you can make a huge impact with your time. I think these other ways should be sought out more by the best and brightest.
Thanks for the well thought out reply.
Thought 1: Speaking of the economy, if one person cut down from 80 hours to 40, would that open up a job for someone else? Probably not, but interesting.
Thought 2: your descriptions of these jobs are entirely different than what someone with the job would say. You can twist almost any situation into your favor in your mind – cognitive dissonance. It turns out smart people are especially adept at this. Look at Bill Clinton legitimately thinking there was nothing wrong with his sexual behavior.
Thought 3: I guess we are all hypocrites in the end. But opening your mind and being able to see the other side is definitely beneficial!
I agree with the sentiments you express in your blog, Skinner. But I think that means that we share similar values more than it means we are right (although I do think we are wise). It depends on what you want out of life and ultimately boils down to choices.
I think the more interesting dilemma is the fact that most folks, particularly driven, high-achieving folks, lose sight of the fact that they have a choice. The path toward financial success and power is a well-beaten, well-advertise one. The path toward self-fulfilliment, contentment, and peace of mind is less obvious, less well-traversed, and less-communicated to the Type-A personality. There are many reasons for this, but the most poignant in my mind is that Type-A’ers tend to self-assess based on metrics that are directly tied to doing activities that tend to make them happy (e.g. working long hours, forgetting to exercise, and ditching social outings). It creates quite the conondrum when what you perceive as the foundation of your self-worth is actually causing you misery. More importantly, you often become addicted to the positive-reinforcement associated with achievement and success, creating an epic, albeit subconscious, negative feedback cycle.
I’m speaking from experience. I had an epic experience last year that forced me to forciby restructure the way that I assess my own self-worth–I broadened it to include stuff like eating well, exercising, spending time with friends, and writing for leisure. I stopped looking at the hours I worked as a metric of how valuable an employee I am. And I learned more about finances so that I can use my money wisely and worry/care less about my paycheck and more about how I spend it to do the things in my life to be a functional, quasi-well adjusted human being.
This is already too long. But I’ll end with one thought–life is too short to wait until you’ve accomplished XYZ before you figure out what brings you joy and fulfillment. Start looking now. And take care of yourself. (that might have technically been 3 thoughts).
Thanks for your 3 thoughts. I love to hear where people fall on the spectrum of agreeing with what I said and taking action, agreeing with what I said in theory and taking no action, and flat out disagreeing with what I said.
Question: If most people don’t know they have a choice, how do we publicize self-fulfillment to the driven youth of the world?