Culture of Working Hard

Curated Learning Resources

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  Hire people who give a shit

  Alexandr Wang, CEO & Co-Founder, Scale AI

  Alexandr argues that when hiring new employees, the most important thing is to find people who genuinely care about the company's mission and work. People who are passionate and work hard are essential for a startup to succeed. As the company grows, it becomes easier to hire people who see it as a credential rather than a cause they believe in. Alexandr looks for candidates who have a history of being deeply passionate about their work, putting in long hours, and caring deeply about the outcome. He claims that most people do not truly care about their work, pointing out that many engineers at big companies only work 5 hours a day. The company's culture, not perks, determines its success.

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  On Hustle Culture

  Erik Torenberg, Co-Founder and Partner, Village Global

  Erik discusses the concept of "hustle culture" and "hustle porn," which refers to people who glorify being busy and working long hours without actually being productive. He argues that the term "hustle porn" is too broad and stigmatizes all hard work, both productive and unproductive. Instead, we should distinguish between productive and unproductive forms of hard work. He also notes that society's attitudes towards self-sacrifice and hard work seem to be shifting, as seen in the different reactions to Michael Jordan's perseverance compared to Simon Biles withdrawing from competition for mental health reasons.

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