Hard Work

"Hard work: I don't like it"

That's what I've had written on this post for a long time, just that, in draft form. It's like I can see some vague prize in the distance for equally vague "hard work" but it isn't enough motivation to do anything. As a result I don't really like hard work. More logical analysis tells me I should think differently. If I take this blog for example, has required quite a large amount of work, more individual chunks of work, but overall hard work none the less. My vague prize hasn't been achieved in a conventional sense, I haven't received stardom as we as so often told. Not even money or recognition. Even so I think I've achieved something deeper, I've achieved some satisfaction. Satisfaction for just doing work? That seems silly, like hard work for the sake of hard work. Although perhaps that explains the addictiveness of simple games.

Take angry birds for an example, the reward for firing agitated birds is pretty meaningless stars (perhaps they are angry because they are jealous of their naturally flighted brethren, but that's an irrelevant side note, shut up brain). Where was I? Meaningless rewards are nevertheless something we want, for complex machines we are pretty easy to fool to be honest. Note to self, award myself gold stars...