Experience and leverage

I watched a short video of a man demolishing a wall. Half of the wall had already been removed and he was working on the remaining half. As he worked, he swung a long sledge hammer, beating what still stood.

With each blow, the wall moved infinitesimally.

After thirteen swings, another worker entered the scene. He was carrying a long pry bar. He wedged it neatly in the vertical gap between the two adjacent walls. With a nonchalant push, the wall-to-be-removed detached and fell wholly to the floor.

* * *

Our most significant progress comes from understanding leverage and where to push, not from how hard we sweat or how long we bang away at things.