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The most practical skill you can learn is working smarter. But here's what nobody tells you about working smarter: it often looks like you're working

A programmer might spend 20 hours wrestling with a difficult algorithm, then have an insight in the shower that solves it in 10 lines of code. Those 20 hours weren't wasted—they were necessary for the insight.

Most people never get past superficial engagement. They fragment their attention into smaller and smaller pieces — checking Slack every 6 minutes, switching tasks 40 times per hour, and treating their minds like a news feed instead of a supercomputer.

Working smarter often requires looking less productive in the short term. That marketing brief you spend three hours perfecting might look identical to one written in 30 minutes. But the thoroughness of your thinking will be reflected in every decision that follows.

Your first thought is what everyone else thinks. Your best thought comes after you've thought long enough to forget what everyone thinks. The difference between good and exceptional isn't hours worked – it's the depth of thought applied to the right problems.
