Ask HN: What to do if you're not great at your job
This was the entirety of my university life. I was constantly dumbfounded by how my peers could seemingly instantly grasp any number of complicated theories whereas I was always left feeling behind, struggling, and stupid because it would take me 10x longer than them to understand the same principles.<p>There&#x27;s a quote by record producer Jimmy Iovine that has always stuck with me since I heard it: &quot;I always felt that I had to work harder than the next guy, just to do as well as the next guy. And to do better than the next guy, I had to just kill.&quot;<p>Unfortunately, there wasn&#x27;t a cure to this. If they put in 3 hours to learn something I had to put in 30. It took me a while, but I came to realise that there was nothing I could do about this. They either had natural talent, were more intelligent, or some combination of the both. And you know what? That&#x27;s fine. I still put in all my extra hours, I was still getting passing grades, and I still graduated. Sometimes, the only way for people like me (and by the sounds of it, you) to compete is to just put in more time. But sometimes, that&#x27;s not enough either. When it comes to that, you have to just realise that comparing yourself to your peers is wasted energy. Are you better than you were yesterday? Yes? Good. That&#x27;s all that really matters.