The capacity to notoriety of work

Why is it considered OK to flaunt hard work? Will there come a time when it might be more prudent to mask long hours of work behind a finished product and instead behave as if the object was conceived with less work and more skill and intelligence?

Is it because hard work is considered a fundamental opportunity given all humankind?

But just the possession of will and spirit deep within doesn't mean it has to be used, to be exhausted in the pursuit of success, albeit its exhaustion be accompanied with praise. Why is that praise justified?

"He worked hard and long, I worked not half-as-hard and not for half-as-long, and I give you something better": With this example in mind, is hard work considered a nullifier, a currency that translates all forms of luck, ill-luck, opportunity and accident into the form of perspiration and blood? Why should it be?

Moreover, the tendency exists, too, that recognizes, nay, yearns that, the capacity for honest work is somehow more innate than the capacity to fool, trick, spy on, defame, slander, and kill, that honest work is more human than the capacity for all these traits.

Is it really?

Who deigned that work would be that nullifier, a currency, and not intelligence? Is hard-work "more" fundamental than intelligence? Why is the flaunting of intelligence considered impudent while the flaunting of work a sign of the presence of humility? Is the capacity for work less volatile than the capacity to think smart? Is one acquired and the other only delivered at the time of birth?

Will a day come when the flaunting of hard-work is considered a sign of impudence and the flaunting of intelligence a sign of the presence of humility? Or - alas! - is it the implied notion of superiority that so scares us, that keeps us from acknowledging publicly that superior intelligence does imply a form of success, perhaps similar to the success implied by the capacity to work hard?

What sacrifice does one represent that the other, seemingly, rejects? Why does only intelligence suffer the curse of bigotry while honest work retains the privilege to socially unfettered use?

The thermodynamics of research

Combing through media reports from the 1980s looking for a mention of Shechtman's discovery of quasi-periodic crystals. NYTimes and Guardian sites from the 1980s won't open quickly enough - fucked up internet connection slows down whenever it rains. And then have to read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Kuhn so I can start writing the proposal for my dissertation.

The start is always the boring part, always has been the boring part for many things in this universe, as if nature has a proclivity to be inconducive toward whatever causes an increase in entropy. Ah, thermodynamics.

Stocks are running low. Long night ahead.

Not tonight, I'm working.

Did you know the hills have to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch them grow.
Did you know the rain has to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch it flow.
Did you know the match has to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch it glow.
Did you know all the doors have to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to shut them close.
Did you know the hills and the rain and the match
And the doors and the floors and the walls
Are so clean and praise not the blight of a scratch
Simply because I never played in their halls?

Not tonight, I'm working.

Did you know the hills have to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch them grow.
Did you know the rain has to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch it flow.
Did you know the match has to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch it glow.
Did you know all the doors have to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to shut them close.
Did you know the hills and the rain and the match
And the doors and the floors and the walls
Are so clean and praise not the blight of a scratch
Simply because I never played in their halls?

Not tonight, I'm working.

Did you know the hills have to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch them grow.
Did you know the rain has to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch it flow.
Did you know the match has to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to watch it glow.
Did you know all the doors have to wait when I'm playing?
Because I don't have the time to shut them close.
Did you know the hills and the rain and the match
And the doors and the floors and the walls
Are so clean and praise not the blight of a scratch
Simply because I never played in their halls?