On Doing Hard Things

Most people make grand, vague statements about changing the world during interviews. Very few act like they mean it. I'd rather be the person who does.

So I try to take the hardest sensible option in front of me: the extra degree, the harder math, the project that could fail publicly. Difficulty is a filter — it selects for the people who keep going.

Why harder is often safer

Easy paths are crowded. The hard problems tend to be hard for a reason, which means fewer people are competing on them, and the ones who do are usually worth knowing.

Never be discouraged. If I were sunk in the lowest pits of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage; and I would come out on top.

— Joseph Smith Jr.