Of all the paradoxes in professional life, the effort paradox causes the most harm to top performers.

The better you get at your craft, the more invisible your expertise becomes. Clean code looks “obvious”. Well-architected systems run smoothly without drama. Elegant solutions appear simple.

But here’s the cruel twist:

While effortless-looking work gets taken for granted, messy work gets attention. The engineer who writes brittle code that breaks gets credit for “firefighting” when they fix it. The manager whose poor planning creates chaos gets praised for “crisis leadership” when they resolve it.

Meanwhile, the engineer whose thoughtful design prevents problems in the first place goes unnoticed. The manager whose careful planning keeps projects on track gets no recognition because nothing went wrong.

This creates a perverse incentive structure where:

• Prevention is invisible, reaction is visible • Quality work looks easy, sloppy work looks heroic • Competence gets overlooked, incompetence gets rewarded

The result? Top performers often feel undervalued while those who create problems get promoted for solving them.

As leaders, we need to actively recognize and reward the quiet excellence that prevents problems rather than just celebrating the loud heroics that fix them.

The best engineering isn’t dramatic. It just works.