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Work is the builder of dreams. For without work, one cannot achieve whatever it is they have in mind.

However, when work comes to mind, perhaps the next best thing to do is figure out what level you'd want to take it to. Should you play it smart? or hard? Also, which comes out top? Working hard? or working smart?

Before I give my opinion on this issue, I'd have to state that this isn't all black and white exactly. There are grey areas where other factors come into play. Areas I am not interested in and won't be stared in this post because I consider this to be an ideal situation which of course, rarely ever happens.

Let's get to understand what working smart means and understand some of its differences from hard work.

By hard work, rules are followed thoroughly, and ideas are hardly adhered to. There are no corners cut or details overlooked. Everything is done by the books. It's more about doing something with muscles than brain because you trust the system it was built upon, and you have a realistic end goal in mind. Example: If I study hard enough, I'll pass my exams.

It's about committing to a process and being consistent with it to earn the rewards.
If you're into self-help, you'd acknowledge hard work more than any other alternatives because it works for you.

Whereas, when we consider smart work, we find that it doesn't have to be exclusively committed to the overall process of completing a task. Rather, it requires a bit more thinking an challenging the existing conventions. A smart student studying wouldn't have to go through the whole textbook to sit for an exam. Most likely, they'd look for recognizable and recurring patterns to work with. They would seek help from others who know better rather than spend too much time figuring out how it goes. they would strategize and set priorities over a couple of things, and develop methods and applications to help make work easier.

We've always had ways of doing things thousands of years ago. However, civilization is where it is today because someone got smarter each time and decided to try something new for the first time. Only to discover it worked. Smart work always takes it a step further by building on someone else's hard work.

Think about the internet for a second. Whatever lines of codes and infrastructures had to be built and tested to make it work out as good as it is today took a lot of hard work for sure, and it probably wouldn't exist any other way. However, through the internet, the blockchain is leveraging on that to make things even better and smarter. First mover advantage doesn't always make the Panacea, and if we understand this, the better for everyone. Hard work doesn't always bring out the best results. Smart work doesn't always provide the final answer. There's always a step ahead.

I'm probably sounding like there's a big world of difference between smart work and hard work. Well, there isn't, really. Rather, the line is as thin as possible and depends on you and me: Are you smart or are you plain dumb?. Smart people tend to make things easier for yourselves and the people who follow them. If you aren't that smart, it could take a lot more effort than is necessary.

Hence, I feel there isn't much difference to it. If we figured ways to optimize our effort and hard work into yielding better results that would make things easier in the future, then that's also being smart. In other words, We work hard to get smarter.

Thank you for reading.