How to Work Hard
When I was an undergrad at CMU, I learned how to work hard. Really hard. After having coasted through too-easy high school, I spent all day every day at CMU either programming, doing mathematics, or thinking about one of those things (to great effect: often the trick to prove a theorem would pop into my head while showering or while taking a walk). I would fall asleep while programming in the middle of the night, dream about programming, then wake up and continue programming just where I left off.<p>One thing from this essay really stuck out to me:<p>&gt; The most basic level of which is simply to feel you should be working without anyone telling you to. Now, when I&#x27;m not working hard, alarm bells go off.<p>One thing that always happened at the end of a semester is we&#x27;d have a few days after exams but before flights back home. On these days I&#x27;d typically try playing a video game (my hobby before college) and every time I would stop playing after just an hour with deep feeling of unease at the pit of my stomach. &quot;Alarm bells&quot; is exactly how I would describe it - a feeling at the core of my psyche that I have been wasting time and there must be <i>something</i> productive I should be doing or thinking about.<p>Years later, having tackled anxiety problems that had plagued me most of my life, I came to recognize that my relationship with hard work during my college years was not healthy and that this deep seated desire to do more work is not a positive thing, at least not for me.<p>I&#x27;ve since reformed my ambitions, instead of looking to start a company or get a PhD in mathematics, I&#x27;ve decided that hard work is not the love of my life and instead I should focus on my hobbies while looking for a career path that can be simultaneously fulfilling but laid back.