A Proof That Didn’t Work Out

When I was younger, I thought I had solved one of the great equations of life:

Theorem: Harder work = Better results.

So I set out to prove it.

• Step 1: Stay up later than everyone else.
• Step 2: Spend another two hours on that essay.
• Step 3: Keep at it in the workplace until the inbox was empty (which never happened).

At first glance, it seemed airtight. More time should mean more output. But there was a flaw in the logic.

The more hours I worked, the more tired I became. The more tired I became, the less effective my work was. What looked like a clean equation began to fall apart. The proof collapsed under its own weight.

It took me years to find the correction. I discovered that rest was not the enemy of productivity, it was its partner. Going to bed early and waking early was smarter than squeezing in another late-night hour. Learning to write with flow, rather than forcing every sentence, was more fruitful. Setting limits in the workplace kept me healthy and made my work stronger.

So here’s the revised version:

Corrected Theorem: Rested mind + right effort = Growth.

It’s not a perfect formula, but it works better than the one I started with.

Daily writing prompt

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

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