9. Breaking Free from the Input-Output Myth

In today’s society, many people fall into a common misconception — that the time and effort they put into work should be directly proportional to their income. I was also trapped in this mindset early in my career.

This way of thinking once left me feeling frustrated and unbalanced at work, and I often found myself thinking things like, “Why do I have XX degree, and why is that person making more than me?” or “I’ve already written so much code, so why is my performance still poor?” and similar thoughts.

First, let’s talk about why this idea of “hard work should be rewarded accordingly” forms. I think there are mainly two reasons:

• School education: From a young age, the standard by which we are evaluated is exams, and linear thinking is brought into the workplace
• Brainwashing by values: Everyone tells you that hard work leads to success, equating effort with reward

However, this is not how markets and economic systems actually operate. Income mainly depends on the value created:

• How much practical benefit it brings
• The scale and importance of the problem it solves
• How replaceable it is
• Whether it has the potential to scale

What we were taught growing up is completely different from how the market really works. To escape the trap of unequal input and output, we need to change some mindsets.

First, we should focus on creating more value rather than measuring output by our own effort and time. This includes leveraging our influence—for example, instead of merely completing assigned tasks, try to find ways to improve the team’s productivity.

I have had similar experiences before, such as introducing automated deployment so the entire deployment process could be simplified to just pressing a button; or using file uploads to allow copy that had originally been hardcoded to be edited in the backend and updated in real time, thereby saving engineers the trouble of modifying code and deploying again.

After staying in the workplace for a while, you come to realize that many processes and tasks are similar. Rather than being a developer who only does assigned work, you can also choose work patterns that create leverage.

When I first entered the workplace, I once got bogged down in trivial issues, writing a lot of code in an attempt to improve existing processes. But because I did not gain recognition from the team, I felt very discouraged. My supervisor also reminded me not to focus only on code, as that tends to be short-sighted. Later, I changed the way I handled problems, actively spoke up, discussed, and sought support within the team, and focused on solving the truly important issues.

This earned me my supervisor’s recognition and gave me the opportunity to become a Tech Lead, responsible for communicating with the planning team and delivering several important features together. I also proactively fought for the chance to build a server from scratch, improving the previous landing page workflow so the planning team could do more customization and strengthen SEO. These contributions led to a significant increase in my salary.

Conclusion

Accept reality — this is how the market mechanism works. Rather than complaining about unfairness, think about how to adapt and find your advantages; be willing to try different ways of working and behaving, and do not let fixed thinking constrain you.

Once you understand the value you can provide, you do not necessarily have to tie yourself to a specific company. Instead, focus on bringing your strengths into play and moving forward on the track where you have an advantage.

This is not an easy transition. Just like I was back then, I always felt that others couldn’t see my efforts and complained about difficult colleagues. But as long as you are willing to change your mindset, a different world will be waiting for you.