Today, we’re obsessed with optimizing everything. Don’t get me wrong—I’m all for reasonable optimizations. However, I firmly believe you can’t optimize your way out of putting in the actual effort. Hacks are supposed to be tools that help optimize results, providing small advantages that add up over time. But without a foundation of hard work, there’s nothing for these hacks to build upon.
Take bodybuilding, for example. There are countless ways to optimize your workouts—timing your meals, hitting protein intake targets, and creating the perfect exercise routine. But all these optimizations are useless if you don’t go to the gym. These hacks have no value without the effort of attending sessions. You can’t hack your way into growing muscles without sweating it out on the gym floor.
The same principle applies to learning, especially in fields like software engineering. I often see people asking for the best materials or courses to learn a particular topic as if a tutorial will magically make them proficient in coding. My answer is always the same: tutorials help you gain insights and get up to speed quickly, but without individual learning and practice, those endless videos and technical articles will have nothing to build on. They will ultimately be useless.
So, what’s the real hack to getting better at anything? It’s simple: “Ass in Chair.” Spending time doing the work is irreplaceable. The only way to improve is by consistently putting in the effort and worrying about optimizations later.
In essence, the only hack you need is the discipline to show up and do the work. All other optimizations are secondary and will only be effective if there’s a substantial base of effort to build upon. So, stop searching for shortcuts and start putting in the hours. That’s the real key to success.