[JoelSutherland]

This article isn't so much about individuals and their decisions but society. The claim isn't that "hard work doesn't pay off". The claim is that "hard work pays of more for some than others based on non-merit factors."

Even if they are correct, this shouldn't affect our behavior. We should still try to climb to the peak of our local maxima. Even if hard work pays off more for others, it makes sense economically for me to work hard if it pays off some.

This doesn't mean we should ignore the study either. It is important as a society to continually self-evaluate to ensure that the systems we have in place are moving us toward our ideals. The purpose of a paper like this isn't (necessarily) to push a set of ideals, but to help us self-evaluate.

[gnosis]

"We should still try to climb to the peak of our local maxima."

Why?

[klochner]

The presumption is that people like to be happy, which I believe is a tautology.

[gnosis]

Happiness doesn't necessarily come from climbing to the top. Some people find the whole ordeal to be rather nasty, for a variety of reasons.

[klochner]

You're free to define your own objective function, it doesn't have to be fame or monetary success.

[CodeMage]

Why what? Why climb? Or why "local maxima"? Or just a general why, for the heck of it? If it's the latter, then my answer would be the following question: Is there any reason not to?