They’re often out of whack.
A Hard Day’s Night took less than 15 hours from idea to finished record. More Than a Feeling, from Tom Scholz and Boston, took five years. Each pleased their audiences. One is not 1,500 times more valuable than the other.
Sometimes, work that requires effort leads to scarcity, and that scarcity can increase its value. But not always.
And just because we put in effort does not mean we deserve the audience to reciprocate with a similar amount. Seven years to write a Ph.D. thesis but a professor on the committee might spend an hour reading it. The student’s effort is not related to the committee’s.
The mythology of creation seems to beg us to calculate the effort when computing the value. But in practice, buyers rarely do.
If the creation is what the audience needs or wants, it actually doesn’t matter how hard it was to create, or who or what created it.
This creates an interesting challenge when it comes to education or fitness. Is the point of assigning an essay to demonstrate that a student can work hard, or to challenge them to have the good taste and judgment to hand in something of quality? Is the trainer at the gym pushing you to go fast/lift a lot, or simply creating the conditions for you to do just a bit more than you did last time?
Focusing on absolute outcomes when we’re trying to improve relative effort is a trap. “A for effort” is a legitimate grade, but even in school, the system rarely chooses to actually do this–the natural writer or athlete gets accolades, not the person who tried harder or overcame obstacles.
When developing our skills, effort is essential. But when engaging in the marketplace, I’m not sure it matters. We should be consistent about which we’re seeking to reward.
