You have to work hard to discover how to work smart. You won't know the best solutions until you've made nearly all the mistakes. - James Clear

Patience is a competitive advantage.

In a surprising number of fields, you can find success if you are simply willing to do the reasonable thing longer than most people.

Persistence and variety. These are the two primary ways to develop great ideas or to solve important problems.

Keep leaning your head against a topic for a long time. Certainly for weeks, possibly for years. And along the way, try many lines of attack. Continue to generate options, explore paths, and propose silly ideas. Copy and paste concepts from widely different disciplines and see if it gets you anywhere. All the while, continue to refine the best solution you've found thus far.

What looks like genius may simply be the byproduct of persistence and variety.

We need to redefine "hard work" to include "hard thinking."

The person who outsmarts you is out working you. The person who finds shortcuts is out working you. The person with a better strategy is out working you.

Usually, the hardest work is thinking of a better way to do it.