All right hard work is a not-so-clear concept for most of us. I mean "hard work"? Am I supposed to do some blue collar stuff? What does it mean?

Let's break it down. Let's break down what we feel during our journey into "hard-work".

Stage 1:

What happens when you attack a challenging problem. You think, you re-think, slowly it drives you out of your comfort zone and now it starts to pain. Your body recognizes you are in pain and tries to put you off it. (Oh I don't wanna do it, so boooring. Oh wait the answer key would be here somewhere. Let me check my friends' code). But our brain is curious too. And if the problem is interesting enough to you you will persevere. You will look at it from different angles and you keep at it, until you reach stage 2

Stage 2:

Now you have tried a lot of possibilities and yet you are unable to wrap your head around it, you start to get agitated and irritated. "WTF man! Why why???" You'll start getting super frustrated. If your grandmom was looking at you now she would tell you to stop and take a break. But that problem is still crucial and interesting to you. Wise men would tell you to break the problem in super tiny chunks and go over the above process again, draw things out, start explaining your solution to yourself etc. etc. You start questioning everything you ever did trying to find a root cause. And when there is none in sight, anger seeps in and you start banging things (Fuck this shit, why is there a seg fault in a cout statement AAAAAHHHHH). After all the banging, hatred and blaming is over you move onto stage 3

Stage 3:

This is a very depressing stage, you are sad, you have tried everything and you have become emotionally very vulnerable. Even small things hurt you. You start thinking you are dumb and useless and probably all this is not meant for you. You become sadder and sadder due to helplessness. That is why it is not recommended that you traverse this stage alone. Make sure you have someone working with you on this. This is also the time most people take a break (take a nap best thing possible). But if you keep at it or come back and do it or you ask someone for desperate help you move onto stage 4

Stage 4:

You finally solve your problem and the deeper the stage you were in the more happiness you feel (and also the most exp you gain). This surge of dopamine is what makes you go through the whole process again. Take up another interesting problem and dig at it again.

You NEEED to go through this process multiple times and love it! Go through it and you will start appreciating hard work. Start looking forward to frustration and the above signs. This will tell you that you are getting closer to solve it, turn it into a game. Ohh I am in stage 3, shit if I solve it I would get butt loads of EXP.

SO to summarize(or TL;DR):

1.Find a interesting problem and (it should mean more than just that grade on your report card, else you will quit in the early stages)

2. Be conscious of frustration and start to love it. (If you are not getting frustrated you are not learning- I use this as my mantra)

3. Keep practicing and experiencing going through it again and again. (Hey, hard work is an acquired taste)